scholarly journals Virtual reality and real-time neurofeedback functional MRI: a breakthrough in foreseeing Alzheimer’s disease?

Brain ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
pp. 722-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Agosta ◽  
Elisa Canu ◽  
Massimo Filippi
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Functional Mri ◽  
Closed Loop

This scientific commentary refers to ‘Earliest amyloid and tau deposition modulate the influence of limbic networks during closed-loop hippocampal downregulation’ by Skouras etal. (doi:10.1093/brain/awaa011).

scholarly journals Zoo Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease with Real-Time Speech Instruction and Neurofeedback System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Ai ◽  
Hamdi Ben Abdessalem ◽  
Claude Frasson
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Animal Therapy ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Emotional Value ◽  
The Impact

There is an increasing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Negative emotions are not only one of the symptoms of AD, but also the accelerator of the disease. Animal therapy can have a positive impact on the negative emotions of patients, but it has strict requirements for both environments and animals. In this study, we aim to explore the effectiveness of using virtual animals and their impact on the reduction of patients’ negative emotions to improve the user’s cognitive functions. This approach has been implemented in the Zoo Therapy project, which presents an immersive 3D virtual reality animal environment, where the impact on the patient’s emotion is measured in real-time by using electroencephalography (EEG). In addition to creating highly realistic virtual animals, the innovation of Zoo Therapy is also in its communication mechanism as it implements bidirectional human-computer interaction supported by 3 interaction methods: 3D buttons, speech instruction, and Neurofeedback. Patients can actively interact with virtual animals through 3D buttons or speech instructions. The Neurofeedback system will guide the animal to actively interact with the patients according to their real-time emotional changes to reduce their negative emotions. Experiments and preliminary results show that it is possible to interact with virtual animals in Zoo Therapy, and the Neurofeedback system can intervene in Zoo VR environment when the emotional value goes down and might reduce patients’ negative emotions.

Virtual Reality Orientation Game for Alzheimer’s Disease Using Real-Time Help System

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Manish Kumar Jha ◽  
Hamdi Ben Abdessalem ◽  
Marwa Boukadida ◽  
Alexie Byrns ◽  
Marc Cuesta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Reality Orientation ◽  
Help System

scholarly journals Virtual Reality-Based Cognitive Stimulation on People with Mild to Moderate Dementia due to Alzheimer’s Disease: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5290
Author(s):  
Jorge Oliveira ◽  
Pedro Gamito ◽  
Teresa Souto ◽  
Rita Conde ◽  
Maria Ferreira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Cognitive Stimulation ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Moderate Dementia ◽  
Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The use of ecologically oriented approaches with virtual reality (VR) depicting instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) is a promising approach for interventions on acquired brain injuries. However, the results of such an approach on dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are still lacking. This research reports on a pilot randomized controlled trial that aimed to explore the effect of a cognitive stimulation reproducing several IADL in VR on people with mild-to-moderate dementia caused by AD. Patients were recruited from residential care homes of Santa Casa da Misericórdia da Amadora (SCMA), which is a relevant nonprofit social and healthcare provider in Portugal. This intervention lasted two months, with a total of 10 sessions (two sessions/week). A neuropsychological assessment was carried out at the baseline and follow-up using established neuropsychological instruments for assessing memory, attention, and executive functions. The sample consisted of 17 patients of both genders randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The preliminary results suggested an improvement in overall cognitive function in the experimental group, with an effect size corresponding to a large effect in global cognition, which suggests that this approach is effective for neurocognitive stimulation in older adults with dementia, contributing to maintaining cognitive function in AD.

DEF8 and Autophagy-Associated Genes are Altered in Mild Cognitive Impairment, Probable Alzheimer’s Disease Patients and a Transgenic Model of the Disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Esteban Leyton ◽  
Diego Matus ◽  
Sandra Espinoza ◽  
José Matías Benitez ◽  
Bastián I. Cortes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Mononuclear Cells ◽  
Differentially Expressed ◽  
Protein Levels ◽  
5Xfad Mice

Background: Disturbances in the autophagy/endolysosomal systems are proposed as early signatures of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, few studies are available concerning autophagy gene expression in AD patients. Objective: To explore the differential expression of classical genes involved in the autophagy pathway, among them a less characterized one, DEF8 (Differentially expressed in FDCP 8), initially considered a Rubicon family member, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and probable AD (pAD) and correlate the results with the expression of DEF8 in the brain of 5xFAD mice. Method: By real-time PCR and flow cytometry, we evaluated autophagy genes levels in PBMCs from MCI and pAD patients. We evaluated DEF8 levels and its localization in brain samples of the 5xFAD mice by real-time PCR, western blot, and immunofluorescence. Results: Transcriptional levels of DEF8 were significantly reduced in PBMCs of MCI and pAD patients compared with healthy donors, correlating with the MoCA and MoCA-MIS cognitive tests scores. DEF8 protein levels were increased in lymphocytes from MCI but not pAD, compared to controls. In the case of brain samples from 5xFAD mice, we observed a reduced mRNA expression and augmented protein levels in 5xFAD compared to age-matched wild-type mice. DEF8 presented a neuronal localization. Conclusion: DEF8, a protein proposed to act at the final step of the autophagy/endolysosomal pathway, is differentially expressed in PBMCs of MCI and pAD and neurons of 5xFAD mice. These results suggest a potential role for DEF8 in the pathophysiology of AD.

Neuroanatomical correlates of semantic memory impairment seen in normal aging and early Alzheimer's disease, as measured by functional MRI

NeuroImage ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 650
Author(s):  
Richard J. Clarke ◽  
Audra J. Parker ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kensinger ◽  
John H. Growdon ◽  
Suzanne Corkin
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Functional Mri ◽  
Semantic Memory ◽  
Memory Impairment ◽  
Normal Aging ◽  
Early Alzheimer’S Disease

scholarly journals NIAGADS Alzheimer’s GenomicsDB: A resource for exploring Alzheimer’s Disease genetic and genomic knowledge

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Greenfest-Allen ◽  
Conor Klamann ◽  
Prabhakaran Gangadharan ◽  
Amanda Kuzma ◽  
Yuk Yee Leung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
Sequencing Analysis ◽  
Summary Statistics ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Report Generation ◽  
Sequencing Project ◽  
Gene Annotations

AbstractINTRODUCTIONThe NIAGADS Alzheimer’s Genomics Database is an interactive knowledgebase for AD genetics that provides access to GWAS summary statistics datasets deposited at NIAGADS, a national genetics data repository for AD and related dementia (ADRD).METHODSThe website makes available >70 genome-wide summary statistics datasets from GWAS and genome sequencing analysis for AD/ADRD. Variants identified from these datasets are mapped to up-to-date variant and gene annotations from a variety of resources and linked to functional genomics data.The database is powered by a big data optimized relational database and ontologies to consistently annotate study designs and phenotypes, facilitating data harmonization and efficient real-time data analysis and variant or gene report generation.RESULTSDetailed variant reports provide tabular and interactive graphical summaries of known ADRD associations, as well as highlight variants flagged by the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Gene reports provide summaries of co-located ADRD risk-associated variants and have been expanded to include meta-analysis results from aggregate association tests performed by the ADSP allowing us to flag genes with genetic-evidence for AD.DISCUSSIONThe GenomicsDB makes available >100 million variant annotations, including ~30 million (5 million novel) variants identified as AD-relevant by ADSP, for browsing and real-time mining via the website or programmatically through a REST API. With a newly redesigned, efficient, search interface and comprehensive record pages linking summary statistics to variant and gene annotations, this resource makes these data both accessible and interpretable, establishing itself as valuable tool for AD research.

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