Embodiment effects and language comprehension in Alzheimer's disease.

It has been shown that when participants are asked to make sensibility judgments on sentences that describe a transfer of an object toward or away from their body, they are faster to respond when the response requires a movement in the same direction as the transfer described in the sentence. This phenomenon is known as the action compatibility effect (ACE). This study investigates whether the ACE exists for volunteers with Alzheimer's disease (AD), whether the ACE can facilitate language comprehension, and also whether the ACE can still be produced if the order of the two events is inverted, that is, whether overt movement can prime comprehension of transfer sentences.

Automatic segmentation of triaxial accelerometry signals for falls risk estimation.

Falls-related injuries in the elderly population represent one of the most significant contributors to rising health care expense in developed countries. In recent years, falls detection technologies have become more common. However, very few have adopted a preferable falls prevention strategy through unsupervised monitoring in the free-living environment.

Evaluation of functional deficits and falls risk in the elderly--methods for preventing falls.

Falls in the elderly have a profound impact on their quality of life through injury, increased fear of falling, reduced confidence to perform daily tasks and loss of independence. Falls come at a substantial economic cost. Tools to quantify falls risk and evaluate functional deficits allow interventions to be targeted to those at increased risk of falling and tailored to correct deficits with the aim of reducing falls rate and reducing ones risk of falling.

Longitudinal falls-risk estimation using triaxial accelerometry.

Falls among the elderly population are a major cause of morbidity and injury-particularly among the over 65 years age group. Validated clinical tests and associated models, built upon assessment of functional ability, have been devised to estimate an individual's risk of falling in the near future. Those identified as at-risk of falling may be targeted for interventative treatment.

A wearable triaxial accelerometry system for longitudinal assessment of falls risk.

Falls-related injuries in the elderly population are a major cause of morbidity and represent one of the most significant contributors to hospitalizations and rising health care expense in developed countries. Many laboratory-based studies have described falls detection systems using wearable accelerometry. However, only a limited number of reports have tried to address the difficult issues of falls detection and falls prevention in unsupervised or free-living environments.