• Ashirgo: “To be honest, I do not feel any obvious difference. There are moments in which I perceive a significant improvement, though, as well as particulars task which are much easier now.”

    “I have also experienced better dream recalling, with all these reveries and other hallucinations included. I am more happier now than ever. I did doubt it would be ever possible! I am also more prone to get excited…Now people in my motherland are just boring to listen to. They speak too slow and seem as though it took them pains to express anything. I did not notice that after I had done my first ninety days of n-back, but now (after 2.5 months) it is just conspicuous.”ref

    “My change of opinion can be easily attributed to the improvement of mood, in coincidence with the mere fact that the winter days have passed and now there is a bright and sunny Spring in my country”; when asked if the previous means Ashirgo attributes all the improvement to the weather, Ashirgo replied: “Fortunately, I can attribute many changes to n-back, I can now handle various tasks with little effort and it takes me much less time in comparison with others (especially when I know what to do). Nevertheless, the main problem for me is that I am also occupied with few things that I suppose to be able to test my newly acquired potential, therefore I cannot say that ‘changes’ are explicit everywhere.

    On the other hand, I am starting to believe that any improvements (that one can expect) so smoothly and swiftly become a natural part of one’s capabilities that it makes them hardly noticeable until some tests/measures are taken.”

  • chinmi04: “For me, it definitely has taught me how to focus. But I’m still not sure whether that has something to do with merely coming to realize the importance of focusing, or whether the program has really physically rewired my brain to focus better. In any case, it appears that I’m now faster at mental reasoning, creative thinking and speaking fluency. But again, the effects are not so clear as to completely eliminate any doubt regarding the connection with the n-back program.”

    “I have been maintaining a personal blog on WordPress since 3 years ago. Average post per month: a little over 1. Then I started with dual-n-back at the end of November… number of posts in January: 7! (none are about n-back)”

  • ArseneLupin: “Not much, yet, but I feel that I can easier get a hold of a discussion. The feeling is the same as when I am mastering a certain n-back in the game (a bit hard to explain).”

  • John: “I feel much sharper since I started in the middle of last November…My productivity is much higher these days. I’m a non-fiction writer, so having a higher working memory and fluid intelligence directly leads to better (and faster) performance. It’s amazing to see the stuff I produce today and compare it to before I began the Dual n-Back training. Also, I am simultaneously learning German, French and Spanish, and I’m certain this is helping me learn those languages faster.”

  • Ginkgo: “DN-Back has probably helped me with one of my hobbies.”

  • BamaDoc: “I note a subjective difference in recall. There might be some increase in attention, but I certainly do notice a difference in recall. It might be placebo, but I am convinced enough that I continue to find time to use the program.”ref

  • karnautrahl: “Since November however, I began to read the Neuroscience book in more detail. I mentioned late December I think that I was finding I could understand more stuff. I’ve spent about £1000 on books since November. The large majority are books on the brain, source from Amazon reviews, reading lists and out of my own pirate list when I liked a book. I stopped Dual n Back in December, early. The benefits have stayed however. I tested this the other day, very easily going to 3 n back, which was mostly where I was before. I guess in a way I’m trying to say that for me, whilst the focus may have been on G increase and IQ etc., now the focus is on—what’s really happened and what can I do with it. What I can do with it is choose to concentrate long enough to genuinely understand fairly technical in depth chapters on subjects often new to me.”ref Karnautrahl writes more on his self-improvements in his thread “Second lot of training started-and long term experience overall.”, and describes an incident in which though he stopped using DNB 3 months previously, he still dealt with a technical issue much faster and more effectively than he feels he would’ve before.

  • negatron: “One perhaps coincidental thing I noticed is that dream recollection went up substantially. A good while after I stopped I developed an odd curiosity for what I previously considered unpleasant material, such as advanced mathematics. Never imagined I’d consider the thought of advanced calculus exciting. I began reading up on such subjects far more frequently than I used to. This was well after I’ve long forgotten about dual n-back so I find it hard to attribute it to a placebo effect, believing that I’m more adapted to this material. On the other hand I don’t recall reading anything about motivational benefits to dual n-back training so I still consider this conjecture and perhaps an eventful coincidence just the same.”ref

  • sutur: “i didn’t really notice any concrete changes in my thinking process, which probably, if existent, are rather hard to detect reliably anyway. one thing i did notice however is an increased sense of calmness. i used to move my legs around an awful lot while sitting which i now don’t feel the urge to anymore. but of course this could be placebo or something else entirely. i also seem to be able to read text (in books or on screen) more fluently now with less danger of distraction. however, personally i am quite skeptic when people describe the changes they notice. changes in cognitive capacity are probably quite subtle, build up slowly and are hard to notice through introspection.”ref

  • astriaos: “By ‘robust’, I mean practically everything I do is qualitatively different from how I did things 30 days previous to the dual n-back training. For instance, in physics class I went from vaguely understanding most of the concepts covered in class to a mastery thorough enough that now my questions usually transcend the scope of the in-class and textbook material, routinely stupefying my physics teacher into longer-than-average pauses. It’s the same experience for all of my classes. Somehow, I’ve learned more-than-I usually learn of physics/government/ etc. (all of my classes, and any topic in general) information from sources outside of class, and without what I consider significant effort. I feel like my learning speed has gone up by some factor greater than 1; I can follow longer arguments with greater precision; my vocabulary has improved; I can pay attention longer; my problem solving skills are significantly better… Really, it’s amazing how much cognition depends on attention!”ref

  • flashquartermaster reports N-back cured his chronic fatigue syndrome?

  • UOChris1: “Harry Kahne was said to have developed the ability to perform several tasks at one time involving no less the 16 different areas of the brain….Surprisingly, I am slowly developing the ability simultaneously perform quad combination 3-back while reciting the alphabet backwards. The practice is very difficult and requires loads of concentration but I am experiencing perceivable gains in clarity of thought from one day of practice to the next whereas my gains from Brain Workshop alone were not perceivable on a daily basis.” UOChris1 wrote of another mode: “Triple-N-Back at .5sec intervals and piano notes instead of letters has greatly improved my subjectively perceived fluidity of thought. I am much more engaged in class, can read much quicker, and am coming up with many more creative solutions now than ever before. I didn’t notice the improvements as much when I was using slower intervals—I feel I make more decision cycles in a given amount of time before coming to a solution.”

  • Pontus Granström “I certainly feel calmer happier and more motivated after doing DNB, it has to do with the increase of dopamine receptors no doubt!”

  • Chris Warren summarizes the results of his intensive practice (covered above): “For those that are curious, I noticed the largest change in my thought processes on Wednesday. My abilities were noticeably different, to the extent that, at some points, it was, well, startling. I’ve started getting used to the feeling, so I can’t really compare my intelligence now versus Wednesday. However, I’m completely confident that I’ve become smarter. Under the kind of stress I’ve put my brain through, I can’t imagine a scenario where that wouldn’t happen.”

    “After the first couple days of training, I experienced a very rapid increase in intelligence. It suddenly became easier to think. I can’t give you any hard evidence, since I didn’t bother to take any tests before I started. However, I can give you this: when I woke up Wednesday morning, I felt the same as I did after the first time I tried n-back. Except the feeling was 10 times stronger, and my thinking was noticeably faster and more comprehensive.”

  • Raman reports an initial null result: “19 days with n-back are over… no subjective benefits as such. But I am aware at what point I am comfortable or not. eg. y’day playing the game was effortless, and today my brain felt sort of sticky, the sequence was just not sticking in my brain. very strange what a few hours can do.”

  • iwan tulijef says that “Long time ago I was diagnosed Adhd [sic] and for long time I took meds and this training helped me to reduce my meds nearly to zero, compared with the doses I took before. Unfortunately this haven’t fixed the whole thing. But what I noticed was, hmm… those things are very difficult to describe…. that time by time I got more control about my mental life. Obvious effects in social matters were eg. that I could follow conversations better and behave more naturally. In my education matters, eg. that I understood maths proofs better. There are a lot of details. Interesting was, as these issues are, to understate it a bit, not unimportant for me, that in the beginning when I remarked changes, I got a bit euphoric, so the first effects of n-back feeled like the strongest.” and warns us that “It’s very difficult and very questionable to take objective informations out of subjective self evaluation.” (Iwan trained for 3-4 months, 20 rounds a day in the morning & evening.)

  • jttoto saw no gain on an IQ test, but thinks he’s benefited anyway: “My friends have always called me inattentive and absent-minded, but since playing n-back no one has called me that for a while. I now never forget where I park my car, when I used to do that nearly every other day. I feel more attentive. Even if my ability to solve problems hasn’t improved, the gains in my memory are real and measurable.”

  • reece: “Not that I’ve noticed [an improvement in lateral thinking]. I have noticed an improvement in my working memory however—seems easier to juggle a few ideas in my head at the same time which presumably the quad-n-back has helped with.” “I recently noticed that it appears to have made me better at playing ping pong and tetris. Oddly enough however, it doesn’t appear to have improved my reaction time…Working memory has improved, however other things I’ve always struggled with such as uncued long term memory recall have not… I’m still very absent-minded and believe n-back has made me more easily distractable (lowered latent inhibition?), although to be fair, I may have brought this on myself by playing quad n-back and this was not something I noticed when only playing dual n-back. I seem to be able to get by on about one hour less sleep per night and perform better cognitively when sleep deprived. Dream recall has increased significantly as has lucid dreaming. I do take a few nootropics, however I’ve been taking the same ones for years…Verbal fluency appears to have improved, proper spelling and punctuation are things I’ve always struggled with and do not appear to have ameliorated resultant from n-back training.” (Poll) “In my experience with dual and multimodal n-back, the benefits I’ve most observed have been increased multitasking ability and increased concentration in the presence of distractions. For me, the benefits of n-back training are most apparent on days I don’t take my ADHD medication. I have been training DNB with position-sound and color-image modes lately. I used QNB for several months in the past, however I (subjectively) believe DNB is giving me the most benefit.” (ADHD thread)

  • Michael Campbell: “Something very minor to some, but was good for me; I’m able to concentrate while reading a lot more than I have been able to in the past.”

  • exigentsky: “I’ve seen improvements in executive function and motivation. After DNB, I am more inclined to study and complete long pending items. However, there is a confounding variable. I don’t usually do DNB when in an unhealthy state of mind (for example, with little sleep and extremely high stress). Still, I believe that I can attribute some of the effects only to DNB.

    In terms of working memory and other cognitive measures, I’m not sure. I don’t notice anything dramatic but also haven’t stuck to a DNB regime for more than a few weeks.”

  • cev: “I think I’ve put my finger on a particular benefit of dnb training: it seems to help my brain’s ‘internal clock’ - I am better able to order my thoughts in time.

    DNB has also helped my foosball (!) playing: at a high level the game involves complex strings of motor movements and since I’ve been training, I’ve found that my coordination of these movements has greatly improved despite no longer practising.”

  • erm: “I can rely on this to drastically reduce anxiety, flightiness, improve concentration. It also seems to whet my appetite for intellectual work and increase purposefulness across the board.”

  • Tofu, after a year of n-backing: “N-back training may have somehow improved my verbal intelligence, but since verbal intelligence is a form of crystallized intelligence and training working memory is supposed to primarily improve fluid intelligence, it probably didn’t. My score on the verbal subtest went up and then down which would make no sense if it did have any influence…Since my IQ score increased from the first test to the second test, and stayed the same from the second test to the third test it could be possibly that working memory only contributes to IQ up to a certain point. All in all, I feel more inclined to say that n-back training has only a little if any effect on IQ though which is why reason I’m probably going to stop doing the n-back training.

    On a more positive note, since I started n-back training I have noticed better concentration which I had a serious problem with before. In general, I feel like I think more clearly and I at least feel like I’ve become smarter too. I’ve reached a pretty high level in n-back and any gains I’ve made in the last month or two have been small, so I think I’ve reached a long-term plateau which is another reason for me to stop the training. From my experience when I stop the n-back training for a month or two and return to n-back training I still perform at the same level anyway. It seems like the effects from training are going to last a while which is also good news. Overall, I feel like the n-back training was worth it but if I had it to do over I would have probably stopped after a couple of months.”

  • kriegerlie: “i’ve defnitely had some benefit, like pontus said, dunno about being smarter, but my focus is incredible now. I can do what i thought I could never do, purely because I can focus more. Placebo or not. It’s a definite effect.”

  • Rotem: “DNB works, It’s one of the best investments I made in my life. I have much less anxiety ( I suffered from GAD my life was a nightmare), more confidence and I guarantee more intelligence - I can feel it…”

  • chortly: “For a while I imagined that my working memory muscles were indeed strengthening, the main sensation being that I could retain the various threads of a complicated conversation better as they dangled and were forgotten by the other conversationalists. But that was probably just wishful thinking. Because it’s boring and difficult, I haven’t stuck with it, though I keep intending to.”

  • JHarris: “I’ve been working with the dual n-back program for a bit of time now. Improvement is slow, but seems to be happening; I just had a 68% run at dual 3-back. Observations like this are not really scientific and hellishly subject to bias, but I think I may be noticing it slightly easier to think effectively.”

  • Neurohacker (in a thread on ADHD): “I’m definitely finding it helpful, even if it’s just giving me some practice at focusing…as a complementary strategy [to medication], it’s certainly working wonders.”

  • iwan tulijef: “n-Back helped me a lot. Especially in the beginning when I started with DNB, the effect was astounding. I got much faster in understanding written and spoken words.In the beginning I think the function of my working memory was really bad. What then happened is that I got habituated to the effect and the increases were smaller, so noticing improvements got more difficult.”

  • Arkanj3l: “On a side, I really enjoy the lucid feeling I get after an hour of n-back. I start to look at things and ideas seem to flow into my head very vividly (I’ve made some of my best Lego creations after an n-back session :p).”

  • Michael Logan: “…and learned very, very quickly that I had a short term memory and attention issue. The dual n back task laughed at me, but I vowed to overcome my inattention and short term memory issues, and within a few practices, I noticed an improvement not only in my scores on the computerized game, but in session with my clients….So Mind Sparke does provide that kind of novel learning challenge. I have not taken an IQ test, but I do believe the use of the tool is helping me build cognitive reserve for the later stages of my life.”

  • milestones: “I’m grateful for the gains I seemed to have received from training dual n back. I used to be extremely forgetful with remembering where I put things and now it’s very easy to retrace steps and recall where I placed xyz item. As far as IQ tests go, I did see a gain on a well designed (untimed) culture fair test of about 1 standard deviation after training one DNB on and off for close 2 years. (Other tests with lower ceilings, however, showed no or marginal gains).” A later post: “The gains I’m seeing are: faster encoding speed; faster and more accurate retrieval of data from long term memory; as well as an increase in data-sequencing speed (the latter is a relative weakness of mine that now seems to have been helped by consistent quad-back training—-though I’ve not tested any transfer so this is subjective). Also, though my fluid intelligence has probably ceased gaining, it seems I’m functioning at higher bands of ability far more regularly—even when I’m tired or sluggish.”

  • Lachlan Jones wrote, after a before/after IQ report, “The most significant real word application for me has been improvements in my piano playing. I am a pianist and can report significant improvements in my sight reading and the rate at which I learn new pieces.”

  • unfunf: “While I haven’t taken an IQ test to see if it has garnered any IQ improvement, I can say I started off at dual 4-back only 2 weeks ago and I am now nearing dual 6-back. I can also attest to a pretty large working memory improvement, beyond what I would call placebo (the effects of which I am very well aware). Even if it is not very effective, I still say this game is fun.”

  • NeuroGuy: “Dual-N-Back has subjectively done more for me in less then two weeks than any single nootropic, can hardly imagine it combined with spaced-repepition.”

  • TeCNoYoTTa: “I also want to report that after training on DNB I found that I am dreaming almost every day…by the way I remember that this effect was not directly after training…unfortunately I stopped using DNB from about 2 months or something like that and now I dream less”

  • dimecoin: “I make no claims, other than anecdotal - in that it seems to relax me and able to handle stress better when I do it regularly.”

  • Arbo Arba: “I did find a lot of changes come to my brain and personality, but I’m not sure if it’s from improving WM or if it’s just from spending a lot of time in an alpha-wave dominant state. I think it’s being in a prolonged alpha-brain wave dominant state, tbh, because I found that when I was younger and took up heavy reading projects I felt the same improvements—that is, having more focus, being able to ‘hear’ myself think very distinctly to the point where I could compose poems/emails in my head without effort. I don’t know why this is, but it happens so much with me that I can’t doubt that there is a real effect on my personality and default mental state when I’m doing ‘intellectual’ things.”

  • Akiyama Shinichi: “I train 3 times a day and every sesion last about 20 minutes. After a month a went to my chess club and completely crash players who was at completely different level. I chose one of the strongest player (at my level of course), because he was able to tell me if I’ve realy improved. Then I had to reveal my secret, and after month I tell how it works for them. I notice that I improve not only in chess. I’m a piano player and it’s really challenging. I was learning very slowly, but yesterday my teacher told me that in two weeks I learnt much more than in the last 2 months. He was even suspecting me that I take lectures from other teacher, not only from him. And that’s not all. I’m a student and one a month every of us have to prepare presentation on some topic. A few days ago was my turn. I didn’t notice it by myself, but one of my friend told me that I was very well-prepared, because I stopped making that annoying sound like”umm”, “yyyy” when I was thinking what to say. When I was performing my presentation I don’t have to think what to say next because I’d already know and didn’t have to think about it much.”

  • whoisbambam: “My mind feels faster. I also seem to have less mental fatigue during studying, n-backing, etc. I am more confident. I am confident that my memory has improved independent of n-backing (what they call ‘far transfer’ effect). I am not saying it is a HUGE difference. I can not say the same is true for any supplement i have taken other than possibly some small effect with magnesium l-threonate which also seems to make me ‘less mentally tired’ in particular, interestingly.”

  • Christopher Działo: “I’ve trained with n-back for several months and have noticed a profound ability to sight read music and locate the notes, my speed and overall dexterity has drastically increased and I shall continue to n-back and grow my musical talent.”