Cognitive rehabilitation in posterior cortical atrophy.

Posterior cortical atrophy is an uncommon type of dementia often caused by Alzheimer's disease and characterised by progressive loss of visuospatial and perceptual abilities. Although there is no curative treatment, patients may benefit from a range of symptom-based techniques and strategies to address visuospatial deficits and apraxia, and to reduce disability. Specific techniques based on visual and tactile cues, adapted and assistive equipment, environmental modifications and skill training may help people with posterior cortical atrophy continue to carry on activities that are important to them.

Five-year effects of cognitive training in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

Introduction: In a 5-year follow-up study, we investigated the enduring effects of cognitive training on older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: A randomized controlled single-blind trial involved 145 older adults with MCI, assigned to cognitive training (MEMO+), an active control psychosocial intervention, or a no-contact condition. Five-year effects were measured on immediate and delayed memory recall, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment screening test (MoCA), self-reported strategy use, and daily living difficulties.

Codevelopment and Deployment of a System for the Telemonitoring of Activities of Daily Living Among Older Adults Receiving Home Care Services: Protocol for an Action Design Research Study.

Background: Telemonitoring of activities of daily living (ADLs) offers significant potential for gaining a deeper insight into the home care needs of older adults experiencing cognitive decline, particularly those living alone. In 2016, our team and a health care institution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, sought to test this technology to enhance the support provided by home care clinical teams for older adults residing alone and facing cognitive deficits. The Support for Seniors' Autonomy program (SAPA [Soutien à l'autonomie des personnes âgées]) project was initiated within this context, embracing an innovative research approach that combines action research and design science.

Speech Acts as a Window to the Difficulties in Instrumental Activities of Daily Living: A Qualitative Descriptive Study in Mild Neurocognitive Disorder and Healthy Aging.

Background: Executive functions (EF) are central to instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). A novel approach to the assessment of the impact of EF difficulties on IADL may be through the speech acts produced when performing IADL-inspired tasks in a laboratory-apartment. Speech acts may act as a window to the difficulties encountered during task performance.

Enhancing Human Activity Recognition in Smart Homes with Self-Supervised Learning and Self-Attention.

Deep learning models have gained prominence in human activity recognition using ambient sensors, particularly for telemonitoring older adults' daily activities in real-world scenarios. However, collecting large volumes of annotated sensor data presents a formidable challenge, given the time-consuming and costly nature of traditional manual annotation methods, especially for extensive projects. In response to this challenge, we propose a novel AttCLHAR model rooted in the self-supervised learning framework SimCLR and augmented with a self-attention mechanism.

Factors influencing older adults' participation in telehealth interventions for primary prevention and health promotion: A rapid review.

Objective: To identify facilitators and barriers to older adults' participation in telehealth interventions for primary prevention and health promotion.

Methods: Relevant articles were searched using keywords in Embase and MEDLINE. Study characteristics, type of telehealth interventions and technology involved, as well as facilitators and barriers to their use, were extracted from selected articles.

COOK technology to support meal preparation following a severe traumatic brain injury: a usability mixed-methods single-case study in a real-world environment.

Introduction: Following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), meal preparation may become challenging as it involves multiple cognitive abilities and sub-tasks. To support this population, the Cognitive Orthosis for coOKing (COOK) was developed in partnership with an alternative residential resource for people with severe TBI. However, little is known about the usability of this technology to support people with TBI living in their own homes.

Cognitive assistance to support individuals with traumatic brain injury using a minimal and personalised approach: A conversion mixed methods study using video analysis.

Introduction: Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) frequently need assistance to manage complex everyday activities. However, little is known about the types of cognitive assistance that can be used to facilitate optimal independence. A conversion mixed method study using video analysis was conducted to describe assistance provided by trained occupational therapists during three everyday tasks carried out in the participants' homes and surrounding environments.

Use of smartphones and tablets after acquired brain injury to support cognition.

Objectives: To describe the use of mobile devices after acquired brain injury (ABI), from the perspectives of injured individuals and significant others, and to examine factors associated with mobile device use for cognition.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 50 adults with moderate/severe traumatic brain injury or stroke (42% women; mean of 50.7 years old, 4.

Proactive and Ongoing Analysis and Management of Ethical Concerns in the Development, Evaluation, and Implementation of Smart Homes for Older Adults With Frailty.

Successful adoption and sustained use of smart home technology can support the aging in place of older adults with frailty. However, the expansion of this technology has been limited, particularly by a lack of ethical considerations surrounding its application. This can ultimately prevent older adults and members of their support ecosystems from benefiting from the technology.

Smartphone use as an efficient tool to improve anomia in primary progressive aphasia.

Cognitive interventions are helpful in the non-pharmacological management of Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and other neurodegenerative disorders of cognition, by helping patients to compensate for their cognitive deficits and improve their functional independence. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation based on the use of mobile device technology in PPA. The aim of this research study was to determine if BL, a patient with semantic variant PPA (svPPA) and severe anomia, was able to learn using specific smartphone functions and an application to reduce her word finding difficulties.

Social Isolation of Older Adults Living in a Neighbourhood of Montreal: A Qualitative Descriptive Study of the Perspectives of Older Adults and Community Stakeholders.

The purpose of this study was to describe the social isolation of older adults in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood (Montreal, Canada) from the perspectives of older adults and community stakeholders. To do so, a descriptive qualitative study was conducted, involving community-dwelling older adults and a variety of key stakeholders from the neighbourhood. Seven focus groups were held, with a total of 37 participants.

Application of the Person-Centered Care to Manage Responsive Behaviors in Clients with Major Neurocognitive Disorders: A Qualitative Single Case Study.

Objectives: Our study aimed to describe "how" and "why" the person-centered care (PCC) approach was applied within a long-term care (LTC) community to manage responsive behaviors (RBs) in individuals with major neurocognitive disorders.

Methods: A descriptive holistic single case study design was employed in the context of an LTC community in Quebec, using semi-structured interviews and non-participatory observations of experienced care providers working with clients with RBs, photographing the physical environment, and accessing documents available on the LTC community's public website. A thematic content analysis was used for data analysis.

Is research on 'smart living environments' based on unobtrusive technologies for older adults going in circles? Evidence from an umbrella review.

Context And Aims: To enable ageing in place, innovative and integrative technologies such as smart living environments may be part of the solution. Despite extensive published literature reviews on this topic, the effectiveness of smart living environments in supporting ageing in place, and in particular involving unobtrusive technologies, remains unclear. The main objective of our umbrella review was to synthesize evidence on this topic.

What's behind the Dashboard? Intervention Mapping of a Mobility Outcomes Monitoring System for Rehabilitation.

Training and follow-up for older adults who received new assistive technology can improve device use adoption and function, but there is a lack of systematic and coordinated services. To address this gap, the Internet-based MOvIT+™ was designed to provide remote monitoring and support for assistive technology users and their caregivers. This paper presents the intervention mapping approach that was used.

Development of an Assistive Technology for Cognition to Support Meal Preparation in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: User-Centered Design Study.

Background: Although assistive technology for cognition (ATC) has enormous potential to help individuals who have sustained a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) prepare meals safely, no ATC has yet been developed to assist in this activity for this specific population.

Objective: This study aims to conduct a needs analysis as a first step in the design of an ATC to support safe and independent meal preparation for persons with severe TBI. This included identifying cooking-related risks to depict future users' profiles and establishing the clinical requirements of the ATC.

A Mixed Reality Cognitive Orthosis to Support Older Adults in Achieving Their Daily Living Activities: Focus Group Study With Clinical Experts.

Background: Mixed reality is an emerging technology that allows us to blend virtual objects into the actual user's environment. This can be realized using head-mounted displays. Many recent studies have suggested the possibility of using this technology to support cognition in people with neurodegenerative disorders (NDs).

Smart Assistive Technology for Cooking for People With Cognitive Impairments Following a Traumatic Brain Injury: User Experience Study.

Background: User experience (UX), including usability, should be formally assessed multiple times throughout the development process to optimize the acceptability and integration of a new technology before implementing it within the home environment of people living with cognitive impairments.

Objective: The aim of this study is to identify UX issues, notably usability issues, and factors to consider for the future implementation of the COOK (Cognitive Orthosis for Cooking) within the home of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to identify modifications to improve the technology.

Methods: This study comprised two rounds of UX evaluations, including extensive usability testing, which were completed in a laboratory context: 3 sessions with 5 experts and, after improvement of COOK, 2 sessions with 10 participants with TBI.

Effectiveness of smart living environments to support older adults to age in place in their community: an umbrella review protocol.

Introduction: Frailty is a vulnerable condition exposing older adults to incidental adverse health events that negatively impact their quality of life and increase health and social costs. Digital solutions may play a key role in addressing this global problem and in particular, smart living environments. Smart living environments involve a notion of measurement or collection of data via several sensors, capturing the person's behaviours in the home or the person's health status over a long period of time.

Semantic Variant Primary Progressive Aphasia: Practical Recommendations for Treatment from 20 Years of Behavioural Research.

People with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA) present with a characteristic progressive breakdown of semantic knowledge. There are currently no pharmacological interventions to cure or slow svPPA, but promising behavioural approaches are increasingly reported. This article offers an overview of the last two decades of research into interventions to support language in people with svPPA including recommendations for clinical practice and future research based on the best available evidence.

Implementation of an assistive technology for meal preparation within a supported residence for adults with acquired brain injury: a mixed-methods single case study.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of implementing an assistive technology for meal preparation called COOK within a supported community residence for a person with an acquired brain injury.

Methods: Using a mixed-methods approach, a multiple baseline single-case experimental design and a descriptive qualitative study were conducted. The participant was a 47-year-old woman with cognitive impairments following a severe stroke.

Challenges and Strategies to Adapt the Provision of Support Services to Older Adults and Caregivers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Perspective of Community Organizations.

This study documented the provision of services and issues experienced by community organizations supporting older adults and caregivers in the province of Quebec during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as promising strategies to adapt the provision of services in this context. A cross-sectional electronic survey using open- and closed-ended questions was conducted in July 2020. Almost three-quarters of the 307 respondents (71.

Providing Verbal Assistance When Assessing Individuals Living with a Traumatic Brain Injury.

Occupational therapists play a major role in identifying the assistance needs of individuals living with a traumatic brain injury. However, to obtain an accurate assessment, verbal assistance should be provided only when necessary, according to the person's needs. This study aimed to understand (1) how verbal assistance is provided during an evaluation of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and (2) why it is provided in this manner.

Potential of using an assistive technology to address meal preparation difficulties following acquired brain injury: clients' and caregivers' perspectives.

Objectives: This study explored difficulties in meal preparation experienced by adults with moderate to severe acquired brain injury (ABI) and available compensatory strategies from both ABI individuals' and caregivers' perspectives. Further, this study investigated their opinions on potential benefits, barriers and facilitators to the use of the Cognitive Orthosis for coOKing (COOK) in their living environment.

Methods: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups were carried out with adults with moderate to severe ABI ( = 20) and formal and informal caregivers ( = 13) in Ontario and Quebec, Canada.