Dataset Information

Let's Play Cards: Multi-Component Cognitive Training With Social Engagement Enhances Executive Control in Older Adults.

ABSTRACT: Cognitive training and social engagement are two of the routes that potentially improve cognitive functions in older adults. The former targets specific functions so that an intervention can trigger the plasticity and efficiency of the underpinning neural systems, and the latter also provides an environment supportive of social and emotional needs. We investigated whether an integration of the two routes could enhance cognitive functions related to executive control, because no prior research has adopted a theory-driven approach to design a group-based cognitive training program for executive control. Forty-six healthy and active older adults living in community settings were randomly assigned to a group-based training program or a group-based active control program. Twenty-three volunteers in a community center were recruited for the waitlist control group. A battery of card games was designed for the cognitive training program based on three theoretical models of executive functions. A set of commercial board games were run in the active control program. Using untrained tests as the outcome measures, we found significant improvement on executive control in the cognitive training group compared with the active and waitlist control groups while the two control groups did not differ in performance. The cognitive training group did not outperform the two groups on a test of reasoning or on a test of delayed episodic memory. The results support the idea that cognitive training with social interaction can improve performance on untrained tests that share overlapping cognitive processes. Despite the inability to adapt to each person's performance, integrating the two routes is beneficial for improving cognitive functions in older adults.

SUBMITTER: Kuo CY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6291491 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Let's Play Cards: Multi-Component Cognitive Training With Social Engagement Enhances Executive Control in Older Adults.

Kuo Chun-Yu CY Huang Yang-Ming YM Yeh Yei-Yu YY

Frontiers in psychology 20181206

Cognitive training and social engagement are two of the routes that potentially improve cognitive functions in older adults. The former targets specific functions so that an intervention can trigger the plasticity and efficiency of the underpinning neural systems, and the latter also provides an environment supportive of social and emotional needs. We investigated whether an integration of the two routes could enhance cognitive functions related to executive control, because no prior research ha ...[more]

PMID: 30574114

Similar Datasets

Project description:Acute infections can alter foraging and movement behaviors relevant to sociality and pathogen spread. However, few studies have directly examined how acute infections caused by directly transmitted pathogens influence host social preferences. While infected hosts often express sickness behaviors (e.g., lethargy) that can reduce social associations with conspecifics, enhanced sociality during infection might be favored in some systems if social grouping improves host survival of infection. Directly assaying social preferences of infected hosts is needed to elucidate potential changes in social preferences that may act as a form of behavioral tolerance (defined as using behavior to minimize fitness costs of infection). We tested how infection alters sociality in juvenile house finches (Haemorhous mexicanus), which are both highly gregarious and particularly susceptible to infection by the bacterial pathogen Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG). We inoculated 33 wild-caught but captive-held juvenile house finches with MG or media (sham control). At peak infection, birds were given a choice assay to assess preference for associating near a flock versus an empty cage. We then repeated this assay after all birds had recovered from infection. Infected birds were significantly more likely than controls to spend time associating with, and specifically foraging near, the flock. However, after infected birds had recovered from MG infection, there were no significant differences in the amount of time birds in each treatment spent with the flock. These results indicate augmented social preferences during active infection, potentially as a form of behavioral tolerance. Notably, infected birds showed strong social preferences regardless of variation in disease severity or pathogen loads, with 14/19 harboring high loads (5-6 log10 copies of MG) at the time of the assay. Overall, our results show that infection with a directly transmitted pathogen can augment social preferences, with important implications for MG spread in natural populations.

Project description:ObjectiveThis study examined cognitive, affective, and medical impairments and their impact on rehabilitation approaches for improving functional outcome after hospitalization in older adults.DesignA secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial in 229 adults 65 yrs or older admitted to two skilled nursing facilities undergoing rehabilitation services was conducted. Patients were randomized to receive physical and occupational therapy by therapists trained in systematic approaches to engage patients, called Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation, or standard of care. The outcome of interest was functional improvement, defined as Barthel Index at discharge (controlling for Barthel Index upon admission). This study analyzed the relationship of measures of cognition, depression, and medical comorbidities as predictors of functional outcome and as moderators interacting with treatment group.ResultsClock drawing score moderated treatment effect size; the functional improvement of Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation over standard of care therapy reduced with increasing executive impairment. In contrast, general cognitive abilities, depression, medical comorbidities, and readiness for rehabilitation were neither predictors nor moderators of functional improvement.ConclusionsFor older adults undergoing rehabilitation, greater functional improvement with the motivational techniques of Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation was contingent on patients having intact executive function. Given that executive function impairments are common in rehabilitation populations, new strategies are needed to improve treatment outcomes in physical/occupational therapy.To claim cme creditsComplete the self-assessment activity and evaluation online at http://www.physiatry.org/JournalCME.Cme objectivesUpon completion of this article, the reader should be able to (1) Discuss the role of baseline affective, cognitive, and medical impairments in impacting functional outcomes of older adults undergoing rehabilitation; (2) Describe the behavioral change and motivational approaches that are core features of the novel intervention known as Enhanced Medical Rehabilitation (E-MR); and (3) Determine the role of baseline executive function in moderating the effect of rehabilitation intervention on functional outcomes in older adults.LevelAdvanced.AccreditationThe Association of Academic Physiatrists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.The Association of Academic Physiatrists designates this Journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Project description:Abstract Background Older people are at greater risk of infection and mortality from COVID‐19 and 52.3% of the deceased in Italy are Lombardy’s residents. Moreover, lockdown measurements may disproportionately affect elderly, since they are less familiar with communication technology used to overcome the lack of in person social contacts. The present study aimed at exploring how older adults residing in Lombardy are experiencing the lockdown period, in relation to loneliness, social isolation and use of communication technology. Method In the first two weeks of May (2020) a telephone interview was conducted with people aged between 81 and 85, residing in the community, who participated in a study aimed at evaluating the impact of Social Networking Sites (SNS) use and older people’s social relationship (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT04242628). We collected information on SNS use, self‐perceived loneliness (UCLA scale 3‐item), social engagement with family and friends (Lubben Social Network Scale 6‐item). Among the eligible individuals (N=144), 1 deceased, 4 refused and 9 were unreachable, resulting in a sample of 130 interviewed. For the aim of the present investigation, participants were stratified as trained (N=60) and untrained (N=70) for SNS use, based on their attendance to group courses held last year as part of the main experimental study. Result Trained and untrained participants were comparable for age, sex, education, percentage of living alone, global cognition, depressive symptoms and comorbidity (Table 1). Participants trained for SNS use reported significantly higher usage of Facebook and WhatsApp and reduced feeling of being left out during the COVID‐19 lockdown (Table 2). Moreover, a trend toward significance was found for an inverse relationship between WhatsApp usage frequency and feeling of lack of companionship (rs = ‐0.257, p = 0.051; Table 3). Conclusion Though SNS are unable to completely replace in person contact, these preliminary results support the utility to train older adults for SNS use in order to improve their social inclusion, even in extreme conditions of self‐isolation and vulnerability due to COVID‐19 pandemic.

Project description:Cognitive control is defined by a set of neural processes that allow us to interact with our complex environment in a goal-directed manner. Humans regularly challenge these control processes when attempting to simultaneously accomplish multiple goals (multitasking), generating interference as the result of fundamental information processing limitations. It is clear that multitasking behaviour has become ubiquitous in today's technologically dense world, and substantial evidence has accrued regarding multitasking difficulties and cognitive control deficits in our ageing population. Here we show that multitasking performance, as assessed with a custom-designed three-dimensional video game (NeuroRacer), exhibits a linear age-related decline from 20 to 79 years of age. By playing an adaptive version of NeuroRacer in multitasking training mode, older adults (60 to 85 years old) reduced multitasking costs compared to both an active control group and a no-contact control group, attaining levels beyond those achieved by untrained 20-year-old participants, with gains persisting for 6 months. Furthermore, age-related deficits in neural signatures of cognitive control, as measured with electroencephalography, were remediated by multitasking training (enhanced midline frontal theta power and frontal-posterior theta coherence). Critically, this training resulted in performance benefits that extended to untrained cognitive control abilities (enhanced sustained attention and working memory), with an increase in midline frontal theta power predicting the training-induced boost in sustained attention and preservation of multitasking improvement 6 months later. These findings highlight the robust plasticity of the prefrontal cognitive control system in the ageing brain, and provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, of how a custom-designed video game can be used to assess cognitive abilities across the lifespan, evaluate underlying neural mechanisms, and serve as a powerful tool for cognitive enhancement.

Dataset Information

Let's Play Cards: Multi-Component Cognitive Training With Social Engagement Enhances Executive Control in Older Adults.

Publications

Let's Play Cards: Multi-Component Cognitive Training With Social Engagement Enhances Executive Control in Older Adults.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets