Do-It-Yourself Gamified Cognitive Training: Viewpoint

Sjors CF van de Weijer; Mark L Kuijf; Nienke M de Vries; Bastiaan R Bloem; Annelien A Duits

doi:10.2196/12130

Do-It-Yourself Gamified Cognitive Training: Viewpoint (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.12130 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Sjors CF van de Weijer ◽

Mark L Kuijf ◽

Nienke M de Vries ◽

Bastiaan R Bloem ◽

Annelien A Duits

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Decline ◽

Cognitive Training ◽

Treatment Options ◽

Unmet Need ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Nonmotor Symptom ◽

Recruitment Procedure ◽

Traditional Therapies ◽

Do It Yourself ◽

Disease Stages

UNSTRUCTURED Cognitive decline is an important nonmotor symptom in Parkinson disease (PD). Unfortunately, very few treatment options are available. Recent research pointed to small positive effects of nonpharmacological cognitive training in PD. Most of these trainings are performed under supervision and solely computerized versions of (traditional) paper-pencil cognitive training programs, lacking rewarding gamification stimulants that could help to promote adherence. By describing 3 different self-invented ways of cognitive gaming in patients with PD, we aimed to raise awareness for the potential of gamified cognitive training in PD patients. In addition, we hoped to inspire the readers with our case descriptions, highlighting the importance of both personalization and cocreation in the development of games for health. In this viewpoint, we have presented 3 PD patients with different ages, with different disease stages, and from various backgrounds, who all used self-invented cognitive training, including elements of personalization and gamification. To indicate generalization into a larger PD population, the recruitment results from a recent cognitive game trial are added. The presented cases show similarities in terms of awareness of their cognitive decline and the ways this process could potentially be counteracted, by looking for tools to train their cognition. On the basis of the response of the recruitment procedure, there seems to be interest in gamified cognitive training in a larger PD population too. Gamification may add to traditional therapies in terms of personalization and adherence. Positive results have already been found with gamified trainings in other populations, and the cases described here suggest that PD is also an attractive area to develop and test gamified cognitive trainings. However, no results of gamified cognitive trainings in PD have been published to date. This suggests an unmet need in this area and may justify the development of gamified cognitive training and its evaluation, for which our considerations can be used.

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Do It Yourself: Computerized Education in the Exam Room

Internal Medicine News ◽

10.1016/s1097-8690(06)74606-6 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 39 (23) ◽

pp. 46

Author(s):

MUKESH BHARGAVA

Keyword(s):

Exam Room ◽

Do It Yourself

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Einfluss von multimodaler sportlicher Aktivität auf Kognition und Alltagskompetenzen bei früher Alzheimer-Demenz (SPORT&KOG)

Zeitschrift für Gerontopsychologie & -psychiatrie ◽

10.1024/1011-6877.21.3.163 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 163-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J.C. Ennen ◽

B.W. Mueller ◽

M. Bibl ◽

H. Esselmann ◽

A. Rütten ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität ◽

Sportliche Aktivität ◽

Depressive Symptome ◽

Alzheimer Demenz ◽

Kognitive Entwicklung ◽

Do It Yourself ◽

Kognitive Leistung

Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt ein vom Bundesministerium für Gesundheit gefördertes Vorhaben zum «Leuchtturmprojekt Demenz» im Themenfeld 1 «Therapie und Pflegemaßnahmen: Wirksamkeit unter Alltagsbedingungen». Hierbei handelt es sich um eine multizentrische randomisierte Interventionsstudie, die den Einfluss von Sport (multimodale sportliche Aktivität) unter kontrollierten Bedingungen auf die kognitive Entwicklung von Alzheimer-Patienten im frühen Stadium prüft. In einem zweiarmigen Design werden je 150 Patienten mit früher AD unter Verum- bzw. Kontroll-Bedingungen untersucht. Die Verum-Gruppe erhält ein spezifisches sportliches Trainingsprogramm. In der Kontrollgruppe werden lediglich Dehnungsübungen durchgeführt. Primäre Endpunkte der Studie sind die kognitive Leistung der Patienten sowie deren Alltagskompetenz im Verlauf. Die gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität der Patienten sowie etwaige Verhaltensstörungen und depressive Symptome werden als sekundäre Endpunkte erfasst. Darüber hinaus werden die Angehörigen zur krankheitsbezogenen Belastung befragt und auf depressive Symptome untersucht. Angelehnt an die Hypothesen der «Initiative Demenzversorgung in der Allgemeinmedizin» (IDA) sollen entsprechende nicht-medikamentöse Versorgungsangebote dazu beitragen, dass Patienten länger in ihrem gewohnten häuslichen Umfeld leben. Im Sinne der Nachhaltigkeit der zu erwartenden Ergebnisse wird ein «Do it yourself»-Manual erstellt, mit dem das Trainingsprogramm auch ohne professionelle Anleitung, z. B. im Rahmen von Selbsthilfegruppen durchgeführt werden kann. Die weitere Implementierung (z. B. in Internetforen und weiteren Medien) wird durch einen Beirat der lokalen Krankenkassen, Gesundheitsämter und der Deutschen Alzheimer-Gesellschaft unterstützt.

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Task-Switching Training and Transfer

Journal of Psychophysiology ◽

10.1027/0269-8803/a000189 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 106-130 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Zsófia Anna Gaál ◽

István Czigler

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Cognitive Training ◽

Task Switching ◽

Difficulty Level ◽

Training Procedure ◽

Far Transfer ◽

Near Transfer ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Transfer Tasks

Abstract. We used task-switching (TS) paradigms to study how cognitive training can compensate age-related cognitive decline. Thirty-nine young (age span: 18–25 years) and 40 older (age span: 60–75 years) women were assigned to training and control groups. The training group received 8 one-hour long cognitive training sessions in which the difficulty level of TS was individually adjusted. The other half of the sample did not receive any intervention. The reference task was an informatively cued TS paradigm with nogo stimuli. Performance was measured on reference, near-transfer, and far-transfer tasks by behavioral indicators and event-related potentials (ERPs) before training, 1 month after pretraining, and in case of older adults, 1 year later. The results showed that young adults had better pretraining performance. The reference task was too difficult for older adults to form appropriate representations as indicated by the behavioral data and the lack of P3b components. But after training older adults reached the level of performance of young participants, and accordingly, P3b emerged after both the cue and the target. Training gain was observed also in near-transfer tasks, and partly in far-transfer tasks; working memory and executive functions did not improve, but we found improvement in alerting and orienting networks, and in the execution of variants of TS paradigms. Behavioral and ERP changes remained preserved even after 1 year. These findings suggest that with an appropriate training procedure older adults can reach the level of performance seen in young adults and these changes persist for a long period. The training also affects the unpracticed tasks, but the transfer depends on the extent of task similarities.

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