Evaluating Attentional Impulsivity: A Biomechatronic Approach

Executive function, also known as executive control, is a multifaceted construct encompassing several cognitive abilities, including working memory, attention, impulse control, and cognitive flexibility. To accurately measure executive functioning skills, it is necessary to develop assessment tools and strategies that can quantify the behaviors associated with cognitive control. Impulsivity, a range of cognitive control deficits, is typically evaluated using conventional neuropsychological tests. However, this study proposes a biomechatronic approach to assess impulsivity as a behavioral construct, in line with traditional neuropsychological assessments. The study involved thirty-four healthy adults who completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) as an initial step. A low-cost biomechatronic system was developed, and an approach based on standard neuropsychological tests, including the trail-making test and serial subtraction-by-seven, was used to evaluate impulsivity. Three tests were conducted: WTMT-A (numbers only), WTMT-B (numbers and letters), and a dual-task of WTMT-A and serial subtraction-by-seven. The preliminary findings suggest that the proposed instrument and experiments successfully generated an attentional impulsivity score and differentiated between participants with high and low attentional impulsivity.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 5 table

Detecting Cognitive Ability Changes in Patients With Moderate Dementia Using a Modified ''Whack-a-Mole'' Game

This paper presents the results from a one-year study of 12 patients with moderate dementia in an adult day program who played a novel whack-a-mole game-based measurement instrument for cognitive behavior and performance. The ongoing measurement of cognition and changes associated with dementia is a challenge for healthcare providers. Measurement methods based on a tablet-based instrument are proposed. Partnership with the adult day program greatly eased recruitment: all but 1 eligible participant joined our study, compared to one in five, or lower, for previous studies with similar populations. There are three unique aspects to the design of our game: first, it has two distinct targets requiring different actions, which increases the cognitive processing for the users; second, each level is systematically more difficult; third, it records and analyzes player performance. The results show that the patients' game performance improves over the first few weeks; this indicates that they are learning the game and retaining ability gains from week-to-week, suggesting some procedural learning is still intact. Over the year, 4 participants showed cognitive decline, 4 were stable and 3 improved based on their Minimental State Exam (MMSE) score. Two measures are proposed based on level progression within the sessions and mole hit performance. The level progression measure identifies declining participants with one false negative (FN) and one false positive error. The mole hit performance measure identifies declining participants with one FN error. These results demonstrate the potential for the proposed instrument to provide an ongoing measurement as an alternative for the repeated application of the MMSE

El futuro de las intervenciones psicosociales para fomentar la calidad de vida en el envejecimiento

Tesis por compendio de publicaciones[ES] Los cinco artículos que componen esta Tesis Doctoral por compendio de publicaciones, se enmarcan en una línea de investigación centrada en la promoción de la calidad de vida en el envejecimiento mediante la intervención psicosocial que integra la comunicación en sus procedimientos de evaluación e intervención. Los artículos presentan cinco casos de estudio en los que se ha llevado a cabo un análisis de la validez de nuevas propuestas de evaluación e intervención psicosocial en el envejecimiento basadas en la comunicación. El principal interés de esta línea de investigación es la posibilidad de desarrollar nuevas intervenciones psicosociales basadas en la comunicación que permitan mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas mayores en una variedad de entornos desde los que se abordan tanto el envejecimiento normal como el patológico. De este modo, se asientan los fundamentos para el diseño de nuevas intervenciones psicosociales y se presentan nuevas propuestas de evaluación e intervención enfocadas a fomentar la calidad de vida de las personas mayores. Dadas las implicaciones que el proceso de envejecimiento tiene sobre la comunicación, la hipótesis general de este trabajo es que el diseño y desarrollo de intervenciones psicosociales originales, novedosas y efectivas, basadas en técnicas de evaluación e intervención de la comunicación, permitirá mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas mayores. El objetivo principal que se plantea es profundizar en el estudio y el fomento del adecuado diseño de procedimientos novedosos y originales de intervención psicosocial basados en modernos procesos de la comunicación, así como la importancia de la comprobación científica de la eficacia de las intervenciones en aspectos psicosociales de las personas mayores que permitan mejorar la calidad de vida