Acoustic stimulation during sleep predicts long-lasting increases in memory performance and beneficial amyloid response in older adults.

Background: Sleep and neurodegeneration are assumed to be locked in a bi-directional vicious cycle. Improving sleep could break this cycle and help to prevent neurodegeneration. We tested multi-night phase-locked acoustic stimulation (PLAS) during slow wave sleep (SWS) as a non-invasive method to improve SWS, memory performance and plasma amyloid levels.

Adaptive data-driven selection of sequences of biological and cognitive markers in pre-clinical diagnosis of dementia.

Effective clinical decision procedures must balance multiple competing objectives such as time-to-decision, acquisition costs, and accuracy. We describe and evaluate POSEIDON, a data-driven method for PrOspective SEquentIal DiagnOsis with Neutral zones to individualize clinical classifications. We evaluated the framework with an application in which the algorithm sequentially proposes to include cognitive, imaging, or molecular markers if a sufficiently more accurate prognosis of clinical decline to manifest Alzheimer's disease is expected.

Investigating Compensatory Brain Activity in Older Adults with Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Background: Preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one possible cause of subjective cognitive decline (SCD). Normal task performance despite ongoing neurodegeneration is typically considered as neuronal compensation, which is reflected by greater neuronal activity. Compensatory brain activity has been observed in frontal as well as parietal regions in SCD, but data are scarce, especially outside the memory domain.

Transcranial electrical stimulation improves cognitive training effects in healthy elderly adults with low cognitive performance.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy of transcranial direct (tDCS) or alternating current stimulation (tACS) in boosting cognitive training efficiency in healthy older adults. We further explored whether such improvements depend on general cognitive performance or age.

Methods: In this randomized, sham-controlled study, 59 healthy elderly participants (mean age 71.

Investigating a new tablet-based telerehabilitation app in patients with aphasia: a randomised, controlled, evaluator-blinded, multicentre trial protocol.

Introduction: Aphasia is a common language disorder acquired after stroke that reduces the quality of life of affected patients. The impairment is frequently accompanied by a deficit in cognitive functions. The state-of-the-art therapy is speech and language therapy but recent findings highlight positive effects of high-frequency therapy.

Informant Questionnaires in Dedicated Memory Clinics: How Much Do They Contribute?

Background/objectives: The diagnostic process in a university memory clinic is based largely on cognitive testing. However, input from informants, acquired through interview or questionnaires, may significantly impact diagnosis. We sought to evaluate whether informant questionnaires for basic and instrumental activities of daily living, or for identifying progressive cognitive decline would improve diagnostic predictability of neurodegenerative disorders compared with either the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) neuropsychological test battery or the Mini-Mental State Examination score alone.

Transcranial Electric Current Stimulation During Associative Memory Encoding: Comparing tACS and tDCS Effects in Healthy Aging.

Associative memory is one of the first cognitive functions negatively affected by healthy and pathological aging processes. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques are easily administrable tools to support memory. However, the optimal stimulation parameters inducing a reliable positive effect on older adult's memory performance remain mostly unclear.

Re-fixation and perseveration patterns in neglect patients during free visual exploration.

The literature suggests that neglect patients not only show impairments in directing attention toward the left, contralesional space, but also present with perseverative behavior. Moreover, previous studies described re-fixations during visual search tasks, and interpreted this finding as an impairment of spatial working memory. The aim of the present study was to study re-fixations and perseverations (i.

Attentional reorienting triggers spatial asymmetries in a search task with cross-modal spatial cueing.

Cross-modal spatial cueing can affect performance in a visual search task. For example, search performance improves if a visual target and an auditory cue originate from the same spatial location, and it deteriorates if they originate from different locations. Moreover, it has recently been postulated that multisensory settings, i.

Visuo-acoustic stimulation that helps you to relax: A virtual reality setup for patients in the intensive care unit.

After prolonged stay in an intensive care unit (ICU) patients often complain about cognitive impairments that affect health-related quality of life after discharge. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to test the feasibility and effects of controlled visual and acoustic stimulation in a virtual reality (VR) setup in the ICU. The VR setup consisted of a head-mounted display in combination with an eye tracker and sensors to assess vital signs.

Evaluation of a novel Serious Game based assessment tool for patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Despite growing interest in developing ecological assessment of difficulties in patients with Alzheimer's disease new methods assessing the cognitive difficulties related to functional activities are missing. To complete current evaluation, the use of Serious Games can be a promising approach as it offers the possibility to recreate a virtual environment with daily living activities and a precise and complete cognitive evaluation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usability and the screening potential of a new ecological tool for assessment of cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

What Older People Like to Play: Genre Preferences and Acceptance of Casual Games.

Background: In recent computerized cognitive training studies, video games have emerged as a promising tool that can benefit cognitive function and well-being. Whereas most video game training studies have used first-person shooter (FPS) action video games, subsequent studies found that older adults dislike this type of game and generally prefer casual video games (CVGs), which are a subtype of video games that are easy to learn and use simple rules and interfaces. Like other video games, CVGs are organized into genres (eg, puzzle games) based on the rule-directed interaction with the game.