Aging is a physiological process that can develop without the appearance of concurrent diseases. However, very frequently, older people suffer from memory loss and an accelerated cognitive decline. ...Studies of the neurobiology of aging are beginning to decipher the mechanisms underlying not only the physiology of aging of the brain but also the mechanisms that make people more vulnerable to cognitive dysfunction and neurodegenerative diseases. Today we know that the aging brain retains a considerable functional plasticity, and that this plasticity is positively promoted by genes activated by different lifestyle factors. In this article some of these lifestyle factors and their mechanisms of action are reviewed, including environmental enrichment and the importance of food intake and some nutrients. Aerobic physical exercise and reduction of chronic stress are also briefly reviewed. It is proposed that lifestyle factors are powerful instruments to promote healthy and successful aging of the brain and delay the appearance of age-related cognitive deficits in elderly people.
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: J Am Geriatr Soc 63:1355–1363, 2015., which has been published in final form at doi: 10.1111/jgs.13481. This article may be used for ...non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
京都大学
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(人間健康科学)
甲第19642号
人健博第34号
新制||人健||3(附属図書館)
32678
京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻
(主査)教授 三谷 章, 教授 黒木 裕士, 教授 市橋 則明
学位規則第4条第1項該当
Doctor of Human Health Sciences
Kyoto University
DFAM
Medical advances have increased life expectancy to the point where senior citizens comprise a larger than ever percentage of the general population. The RAPP project introduces socially interactive ...robots that will not only physically assist, but also serve as a companion to senior citizens. In this paper, a novel system is presented, designed as part of the RAPP project that aims to assist senior citizens with mild cognitive impairment in performing cognitive tests as a means of exercise, while also keeping track of their performance. Our goal is to provide an interactive and intriguing user friendly alternative to the classic cognitive tests that will keep the patient interested and thus increase compliance. Tracking the patient's performance in the cognitive tests can prove invaluable as the data can be further associated with medical treatment or lifestyle changes and conclusively lead to better understanding of the nature of cognitive decline.
Serious games for elderly healthcare provide a promising and novel way to promote the well-being of senior citizens. The gaming environment, originally designed for a younger target population, ...benefits from the increasing power of personal computers, mobiles devices (phones, tablets) and SmartTVs, as well as the recent emergence of motion capture technology developed for videogame consoles via worn physical sensors and controller free sensors. Measuring self-efficacy by elderly individuals on such gaming environments has characterized them in terms of their effectiveness to motivate an audience reluctant to undertake more conventional forms of activities. However, the relationship between the features making the game challenging and the senior user's behaviour in becoming motivated so as to interact with the system independently and effectively is still elusive. For instance, failure in understanding the game's instructions or adapting to the speed and complexity may be thought of as barriers that affect the seniors' satisfactory interaction within the gaming environment. A step towards this direction would require using emotions in the midst of the gaming environment so as to allow for the embodiment of real-time mental (cognitive and emotional), and physical data. The main goal is to focus on assessing the features that encourage the elderly individuals to interact with the gaming environment on a daily basis. We propose to further enhance the gaming environment through the use of personal biosensors (i.e. wireless EEG) and cameras (i.e. fisheye camera) so as to collect the user's mental and physical changes over time and fuse them in a decision support system. This information will eventually provide feedback on the gaming experience so as to modify it according to the user's affective state.
Introduction: Studies have shown that the anodal tDCS is able to increase the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation. On the other hand, results of recent studies have shown that unihemispheric ...concurrent dual-site a-tDCS could increase the corticospinal excitability. Aim: The present study compares the effectiveness of unihemispheric concurrent dual-site a-tDCS and conventional tDCS, during cognitive exercises in improving the response inhibition of normal individuals. Method: 21 subjects were randomly assigned into two experimental groups as well as a control group. First group received Anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC and M1, the second group received Anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC and Control group received sham a-tDCS. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) at 0.3 mAh was applied directly for 30 minutes in 4 sessions. All subjects, after interventions in each session, performed the stop signal task. In Fifth session, In order to follow up the effectiveness of interventions, 24 hours after the interventions, subjects were re-evaluated. Results: The results of repeated measurements analysis revealed that compared with conventional tDCS and control group, unihemispheric concurrent dual-site a-tDCS group had larger improvement in improving the response inhibition of normal individuals (P.05). Conclusion: The results show that unihemispheric concurrent dual-site a-tDCS could enhance the effectiveness of cognitive exercises by increasing cortical excitability
Abstract
Objective
The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of a telerehabilitation program in multi-domain amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (md-aMCI). The study ...sample consisted of 30 patients with md-aMCI and aged 60–80 years.
Methods
The participants were randomly divided into two groups. The Training Group (TG), which received cognitive training by using the RehaCom software as well as paper-pencil language training and the Control Group (CG) which received standard clinical care (e.g., psychotherapy or/and physiotherapy). Duration of the telerehabilitation intervention was 15 weeks (twice a week for 60 min/session).
Results
Our results revealed that the neuropsychological performance of the TG group after the telerehabilitation intervention improved on a statistically significant level on the domains of delayed and working memory, confrontation naming, verbal fluency, and global cognition. Comparison between the TG and CG revealed a significant impact of the telerehabilitation program on the domains of memory (delay and working) and language (naming and verbal fluency) as well as global cognition performance.
Conclusion
The findings of the study are promising in that the telerehabilitation intervention appears to be a useful method in improving or stabilizing cognitive decline in md-aMCI individuals and was a particularly effective alternative approach during the period of the pandemic lockdown. Specifically, the beneficial impact of the telerehabilitation intervention on episodic memory (which is one of the first domains to show impairment in md-aMCI patients) provides us with hope and evidence that these types of interventions may be applied with similar success using face-to-face interventions.
The paper is focused on the question of remote learning a foreign language in the context of neuroscience. The notions of “distance training”, “neuropsychology”, and “pedagogic technologies of remote ...teaching ” have been cleared up. It has been emphasized that an educational institution is free to choose its own model of the organizing of remote training. It has been pointed out that neuropsychology is based on experimental and clinical neuropsychology and that the first neuropsychological research had been carried out by L. S. Vygotskyi (1956) and A. Luriya (1965). The articles of domestic and overseas scholars, which contain critical analysis of remote teaching a foreign language, have been reviewed. The survey of different countries scientists' publications, concerning foreign language distance teaching's directions of the study, has been clarified. The advantages of the distance teaching have been defined. It has been pointed out that autonomic activities of a student cannot be passively organized. The advantages and disadvantages of home-schooling have been clarified. The accent has been made on the usage of modern platforms and online-services, particularly Moodle and Google Classroom. The influence of neuropsychology on higher mental processes has been explored. It has been noted that the lack of “live” social relationship is finally dangerous, especially for children, and emphasized that while organizing remote training process cognitive exercises should be used to boost children’s brain functioning. The accent has been made on the necessity of cognitive activities for enhancing children's concern for studying. The unique example of the usage of A. Luriya’s (1964) and M. Rosenzweig's (2009) methodologies has been given. The well-known master on school psychology B. Arrowsmith-Young’s study (2012) on remedial work with children, who have problems in learning, has been analyzed.
The effects of cognitive exercises on the healthy aging population is controversial. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is considered a promising tool for modulating brain ...oscillation. Research is lacking on its long-lasting cognitive/therapeutic effect. This is the first pilot study to explore the effect of a regimen of cognitive exercises with and without tACS on older adults with dementia. The study groups were 28 individuals (age 56–83 years) enrolled into two groups: Exr Group, who received cognitive exercises only and the Exr + tACS Group who received tACS at 40 Hz simultaneously with cognitive exercises for a period of 4 consecutive weeks, 5 days/week, two 30 min-sessions/day; all the training sessions were tutored. The cognitive exercises were applied using the MindTriggers app. They were assessed at pre and post intervention and also one month after the end of trial (follow-up) with an independent assessment (WMS-IV) as the primary outcome measure. The results show significant cognitive improvement at post-intervention in both groups, while the Exr + tACS protocol lead to superior cognitive improvement at follow-up session. The most important outcomes of this study are: 1) The tutored repeated practice of the MindTriggers app exercises does significantly improve the cognitive functions of older adults with dementia and that that improvement lasts for at least one month after the end of the intervention, and 2) The application of tACS increases the positive effects of cognitive exercises with the positive effect lasting an even longer period of time than exercises alone; in other words we speculate that it may lead to long-term potentiation.
We investigated the training effects and transfer effects associated with 2 approaches to cognitive activities (so-called brain training) that might mitigate age-related cognitive decline. A sample ...of 78 adults between the ages of 50 and 71 completed 20 one-hr training sessions with the Nintendo Wii Big Brain Academy software over the course of 1 month and, in a second month, completed 20 one-hr reading sessions with articles on 4 different current topics (order of assignment was counterbalanced for the participants). An extensive battery of cognitive and perceptual speed ability measures was administered before and after each month of cognitive training activities, along with a battery of domain-knowledge tests. Results indicated substantial improvements on the Wii tasks, somewhat less improvement on the domain knowledge tests, and practice-related improvements on 6 of the 10 ability tests. However, there was no significant transfer of training from either the Wii practice or the reading tasks to measures of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities. Implications for these findings are discussed in terms of adult intellectual development and maintenance.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
In recent years, the need to contain healthcare costs due to the growing public debt of many countries, combined with the need to reduce costly travel by patients unable to move autonomously, have ...captured the attention of public administrators towards tele-rehabilitation. This trend has been consolidated overwhelmingly following the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made it precarious, difficult and even dangerous for patients to access hospital facilities. We present an approach based on the rapid prototyping of virtual reality, cognitive tele-rehabilitation exercises, which reinforce the group of exercises available in the Nu!reha platform. Patients who experienced injury or pathology need to practice continuous training in order to recover functional abilities, and the therapist needs to monitor the outcomes of such practices. The group of new exercises based on the rapid prototyping approach, become crucial especially in this pandemic period. The Virtual Reality exercises are designed on Unity 3D to empower the therapist to set up personalized exercises in an easy way, enabling the patient to receive personalized stimuli, which are essential for a positive outcome in the practice. Furthermore, the reaction speed of the system is of fundamental importance, as the temporal evolution of the scene must proceed parallel to the patient’s movements, to ensure an effective and efficient therapeutic response. So, we optimized the virtual reality application in order to make the loading phase and the startup phase as fast as possible and we have tested the results obtained with many devices: in particular computers and smartphones with different operating systems and hardware. The implemented method powers up the Nu!Reha system®, a collection of tele-rehabilitation services that helps patients to recover cognitive and functional capabilities.
PDF
