Drugs, games, and devices for enhancing cognition: implications for work and society.

As work environments change, the demands on working people change. Cognitive abilities in particular are becoming progressively more important for work performance and successful competition in a global environment. However, work-related stress, performance over long hours, lack of sleep, shift work, and jet lag affect cognitive functions. Therefore, an increasing number of healthy people are reported to use cognitive-enhancing drugs, as well as other interventions, such as noninvasive brain stimulation, to maintain or improve work performance. This review summarizes research on pharmacological and technical methods as well as cognitive training, including game apps for the brain, in healthy people. In neuropsychiatric disorders, impairments in cognitive functions can drastically reduce the chances of returning to work; therefore, this review also summarizes findings from pharmacological and cognitive-training studies in neuropsychiatric disorders.All cited psychopharmacological work from Professor Sahakian laboratory was funded by a Wellcome Trust Grant (089589/Z/09/Z) awarded to T.W. Robbins, B.J. Everitt, A.C. Roberts, J.W. Dalley, and B.J. Sahakian, and it was conducted at the Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, which is supported by a joint award from the Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust (G00001354). ABB was supported by a grant from the The Wallitt Foundation.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nyas.1304

User experience of interactive technologies for people with dementia: comparative observational study

Background: Serious games (SGs) are used as complementary approaches to stimulate patients with dementia. However, many of the SGs use out-of-the-shelf technologies that may not always be suitable for such populations, as they can lead to negative behaviors, such as anxiety, fatigue, and even cybersickness. Objective: This study aims to evaluate how patients with dementia interact and accept 5 out-of-the-shelf technologies while completing 10 virtual reality tasks. Methods: A total of 12 participants diagnosed with dementia (mean age 75.08 [SD 8.07] years, mean Mini-Mental State Examination score 17.33 [SD 5.79], and mean schooling 5.55 [SD 3.30]) at a health care center in Portugal were invited to participate in this study. A within-subject experimental design was used to allow all participants to interact with all technologies, such as HTC VIVE, head-mounted display (HMD), tablet, mouse, augmented reality (AR), leap motion (LM), and a combination of HMD with LM. Participants’ performance was quantified through behavioral and verbal responses, which were captured through video recordings and written notes. Results: The findings of this study revealed that the user experience using technology was dependent on the patient profile; the patients had a better user experience when they use technologies with direct interaction configuration as opposed to indirect interaction configuration in terms of assistance required (P=.01) and comprehension (P=.01); the participants did not trigger any emotional responses when using any of the technologies; the participants’performance was task-dependent; the most cost-effective technology was the mouse, whereas the least cost-effective was AR; and all the technologies, except for one (HMD with LM), were not exposed to external hazards. Conclusions: Most participants were able to perform tasks using out-of-the-shelf technologies. However, there is no perfect technology, as they are not explicitly designed to address the needs and skills of people with dementia. Here, we propose a set of guidelines that aim to help health professionals and engineers maximize user experience when using such technologies for the population with dementia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Studies involving people with dementia and touchscreen technology: a literature review

Background: Devices using touchscreen interfaces such as tablets and smartphones have been highlighted as potentially suitable for people with dementia due to their intuitive and simple control method. This population experience a lack of meaningful, engaging activities, yet the potential use of the touchscreen format to address this issue has not been fully realized. Objective: To identify and synthesize the existing body of literature involving the use of touchscreen technology and people with dementia in order to guide future research in this area. Methods: A systematized review of studies in the English language was conducted, where a touchscreen interface was used with human participants with dementia. Results: A total of 45 articles met the inclusion criteria. Four questions were addressed concerning (1) the context of use, (2) reasons behind the selection of the technology, (3) details of the hardware and software, and (4) whether independent use by people with dementia was evidenced. Conclusions: This review presents an emerging body of evidence demonstrating that people with dementia are able to independently use touchscreen technology. The intuitive control method and adaptability of modern devices has driven the selection of this technology in studies. However, its primary use to date has been as a method to deliver assessments and screening tests or to provide an assistive function or cognitive rehabilitation. Building on the finding that people with dementia are able to use touchscreen technology and which design features facilitate this, more use could be made to deliver independent activities for meaningful occupation, entertainment, and fun

Musiquence – Design, Implementation and Validation of a Customizable Music and Reminiscence Cognitive Stimulation Platform for People with Dementia

Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of individuals worldwide and is challenging to diagnose as symptoms may only perceivable decades later. The disease leads to a gradual loss of memory, learning, orientation, language, and comprehension skills, which compromises activities of daily living. Health-related costs caused by dementia will continue to increase over the next few years; between the years 2005 and 2009, an increase of 34% (from $315 to$422 billion worldwide) was observed in treating dementia-related issues. Pharmaceutical approaches have been developed to treat dementia symptoms; unfortunately, the risk of side effects is high. For this reason, nonpharmaceutical methods such as music and reminiscence therapies have gained acceptance as patients with dementia positively respond to such approaches even at later stages of the disease. Nevertheless, further research is needed to understand how music and reminiscence therapy should be used and to quantify their impact on individuals with dementia. The development of serious games has gained attention as an alternative approach to stimulate patients. However, the clinical impact that serious games have on individuals with dementia is still unclear. In this dissertation, we contribute with new knowledge regarding the usage of music and reminiscence approaches in people with dementia through a theoretical model. Based on Baddeley’s working memory model, our model aims to explain how the therapeutic properties of music and reminiscence can have a beneficial effect. To test our model, we developed a novel interactive platform called Musiquence, in which healthcare professionals can create music and reminiscence based cognitive activities to stimulate people with dementia. In this dissertation, we present the results from several studies about the usage and effects that music and reminiscence have on such a population. We performed two studies using Musiquence to study the feasibility of a novel learning method based on musical feedback to aid people with dementia during task performance in virtual reality settings. Results show that participants relied more on music-based feedback during the task performance of virtual reality activities than in other forms of feedback. Also, data suggest that the music-based feedback system can improve task performance, compensating for some dementia-related deficits. We also used Musiquence in a longitudinal one-month-long pilot study to assess its efficacy when used for a cognitive stimulation intervention in dementia patients. The results of the study are promising. The 3 participants showed improvements in terms of general cognition, quality of life, mood, and verbal fluency