The majority of older Americans successfully cope with the normal physical and cognitive changes associated with aging. Cognitive health positively impacts physical and emotional health and quality of life. Almost 20% of those 55 years and older experience specific mental disorders that are not part of “normal” aging including depression, anxiety disorders, and dementia including Alzheimer’s disease which can be debilitating and severely affect an older adult’s quality of life. The remaining 80% of individuals can and should do something to actively maintain their brain.
Cognitive health – or brain health, is an important part of healthy aging.Cognitive health refers to maintaining and improving mental skills such as:
· Attention
· Learning
· Memory
· Language and speech
· Fine motor skills
· Visual-spatial orientation
· Executive functions, such as
· Goal-setting
· Planning
· Judgment
Many older adults mistakenly believe forgetting or becoming “senile” is a normal part of aging. Although one in four older adults experience these events (known collectively as cognitive decline), these symptoms are neither normal, nor an inevitable part of healthy aging.
There are certain changes in cognitive health that occur as you age. Normal changes usually mean a slower pace of learning and the need for new information to be repeated. While the majority of older adults will experience these normal changes in cognition, some older adults will experience an actual cognitive decline. Older adults with cognitive decline have a higher risk of developing dementia later in life.
Among Americans 65 years and older, approximately 6–10% have dementia, and two-thirds of people with dementia have Alzheimer’s disease.
What can you do about it?
Medical research suggests that being physically active, controlling your blood pressure, and engaging in social activities may help you maintain and improve both your physical and cognitive health. Your brain remains capable of adapting and regenerating even as you age. Although declines may occur in certain cognitive functions, other cognitive functions increase with age and can compensate for the functions that may decline. Cognitive decline may be preventable through a simple regimen of mental training using MindFit.
Scientific studies have found that frequent participation in mentally stimulating activities is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Mental stimulation is not limited to formal education and can include everyday activities such as:
- Reading books
- Reading newspapers
- Reading magazines
- Playing cards
- Playing Checkers
- Completing crosswords
- Working on logic puzzles
A number of studies have also shown that older adults with mild cognitive decline can improve cognitive functioning through special training. However, training is often specific to the skills trained and learned.
How MindFit Works
Cognitive technology is a new and evolving field which combines the interactive qualities of modern computers with knowledge recently acquired by research in cognitive psychology to create tools that can preserve and improve our cognitive abilities.
The landmark longitudinal study by Dr. David Snowden, “The Nun Study” provides the fundamental rationale for organized training of an individual’s cognitive function. Snowden suggested that the level of an individual’s cognitive function was a potent marker for the potential of deteriorating brain function in later life. Cognitive functions ranging from linguistic performance to visual-spatial accuracy, all contributed to this predictive function in the development of a protective “neurocognitive reserve."
Mindfit addresses this concept, focusing on the recently discovered ability of neurons in the brain to continue to develop and evolve even in later life. Mindfit does so by utilizing an organized and individualized program which trains and stimulates 14 different cognitive skills. By stimulating and creating new pathways in these areas, vital cognitive function and an effective “neurocognitive reserve” may be developed. Just as with physical training, effective cognitive training requires actively focused effort on a specific task or sequential tasks. The use of computer based software system for this is ideal for exercising the mind due to its ability to specifically adjust the level of challenge for each person. The computer can present well designed stimuli in both visual and auditory modes. It can measure the precise time it took an individual to carry out a particular task, and whether it was completed it successfully. On the basis of such information, it can adjust the difficulty of the current task, or select another one best fitting our needs. In addition, detailed information about the individual’s performance can be stored and analyze to give continual feedback on the individual user’s progress.
Cognitive Skills
The specific cognitive skills addressed in the Mindfit software train the user in pertinent tasks that are relevant to “real life” function. These skills and their relevance include:
Hand Eye Coordination: Rapid aimed limb movements depend critically on information obtained from the eyes. Eye-hand coordination is a crucial motor skill involving how effective we are at translating what our eyes see into appropriate physical responses. This is the ability to manage accurately hand movements in response to a visual stimulus.
Speed of Mental Processing and Response Time: Mental processing and response speed is composed of three stages: sensation, perception, and response selection. This measures how long it takes to detect, analyse and respond to a stimulus.
Spatial Perception: The ability to perceive spatial relationships especially distances between objects. It is the ability to evaluate how things are arranged in space.
Visual Perception: How the brain perceives what the eyes see.
Visual Scanning: Many real-world tasks require the ability to screen the physical environment in search of specific target stimuli.
Short Term Memory: The temporary storage of a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time (roughly 15-30 seconds).
Working Memory: Working memory is the ability to retrieve and remember information that is required to carry out tasks.
Divided Attention: Divided attention is the ability to concentrate in parallel on multiple stimuli, in other words, the ability to concentrate simultaneously on two or more channels of stimulation.
Inhibition: Inhibition is the ability to stop one response and say or do something else, the ability to suppress irrelevant reactions.
Shifting: Cognitive flexibility, the ability to generate several categories of responses and the ability to change the course of one’s actions.
Time Estimation: The ability to accurately measure the passage of time using our subjective mental sense of time.
Naming: The retrieval of words (names, nouns, and verbs).
Awareness: The ability to be self-aware and evaluate one’s own cognitive function.
Planning: The ability to think ahead step-by-step before the actual execution of a task.
The MindFit Training Program
MindFit trains these cognitive functions through a unique adaptive technology that enables its software to learn the user’s abilities, and based on this data, create a personalized cognitive training program.
Mindfit’s training program consists of two distinct stages:
– After three 20 minute assessment sessions, an individualized program is created for you that matches your own abilities and level of cognitive skills.
Training – Three times a week, 20 minutes a day on an individualized brain skill program with on-going continued feedback.
Each practice session lasts for about 20 minutes and is made up of three to four tasks. The complete training program includes 24 practice sessions. This process, beginning again with an additional individualized skill assessment, is then repeated two additional times in its entirety.
The “brain” behind the program is the INDIVIUDUALIZED TRAINING SYSTEM (ITS). This is an interactive system that “learns” about users through their performance. The ITS then provides an individualized training schedule and monitors and responds to the user’s performance throughout the training. As training progresses, the ITS increases or decreases the difficulty of each task depending on the user’s specific performance. At the conclusion of this almost nine-month training period the user is then provided with a task pool of exercises for lifelong brain training and fitness.
In addition, during the training program, MindFit provides the user with information about the cognitive skills being exercised in each task and their relevance to functions that occur in every day life.
Initial studies including a large cohort of adults (mean age 68, range 56-75) showed significant improvement in a variety of cognitive skills after only one month of regular training. Representative results include:
· 16% improvement in simple reaction time
· 9.4% improvement in choice reaction time
· 11.5% improvement in correct time estimation
· 30.6% improvement in visual short term memory
Similar results related to focusing of attention, short term memory, hand-eye coordination, planning, and visual scanning and perception were also noted. The majority of those tested had limited or no previous computer skills.
There are multiple ongoing clinical trials worldwide evaluating the efficacy of Mindfit related to patients with early signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a possible precursor to Alzheimer’s disease; patients with early Alzheimer’s disease; patients with multiple sclerosis; patients with sleep disorders; as well as healthy aging adults.
Cancer chemotherapy induced cognitive impairment
Women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer may experience problems with memory and concentration that could be related to the treatment itself, according to a Canadian study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Around 30% of breast cancer patents undergoing chemotherapy experience some form of cognitive decline. Symptoms such as memory and concentration problems are frequently reported by cancer patients treated with chemotherapy, even years after completion of treatment. The benefits of standard treatment for breast cancer are well established.
Chemo-brain or Chemo-fog
The “Chemo-fog” that is often associated with therapy is one of many possible side effects that patients need to understand. Cognitive impairment caused by chemotherapy is not restricted to a specific area of the brain, but rather appears to be generalized. In addition to the major reported complaints of decreased memory and concentration, other cognitive skills including attention, mental flexibility, reactive time and speed of information processing, learning new information, recalling recently learned information, visual-spatial memory and motor and verbal function are affected. The longer the chemotherapy, the more profound the effect on cognition.
In theory, factors related to prognosis, such as anxiety or depression could account for observed differences in cognitive functioning, but the results from several studies showed that depression and anxiety have no influence on the cognitive test performances of treated patients. While the exact mechanism of chemotherapeutic effect on cognition is not definitively known, cognitive decline might be caused by a reduction in gray matter throughout the brain, and also reduction in regions of connective tissues in the brain; damage to the endothelium of blood vessels leading to increased blood clotting, which might cause micro-infarcts in the central nervous system; anemia-related decrease in the hemoglobin concentration and inadequate oxygen delivery affecting the function of cerebral tissue; reductions in reproductive hormone levels, particularly estrogen and progesterone.
Cognitive impairment can limit the quality of life. Back on Track is a product that has been shown to assist cancer survivors in regaining their cognitive abilities and better their quality of life.
How Back On Track ™ works
People experiencing the cognitive effects of chemotherapy generally respond very well to focused rehabilitation efforts. In that regard, the best results from Back On Track will be achieved by scheduling a training routine of 20 minutes a day, three days a week. Just as with Mindfit, Back on Track trains specific cognitive functions through a unique adaptive technology that enables its software to learn the user’s abilities to create a personalized cognitive training program. By focusing on the ability of neurons in the brain to continue to develop and evolve, even in later life, this organized and individualized program can potentially stimulate and create new pathways. and allow an effective “neurocognitive reserve” to be developed.
The Back On Track™ Solution
Similar to the Mindfit software, Back on Track uses a computer based software system that is ideal for exercising the mind due to its ability to specifically adjust the level of challenge for each person. The computer can present well designed stimuli in both visual and auditory modes. It can measure the precise time it took an individual to carry out a particular task, and whether it was completed it successfully. On the basis of such information, it can adjust the difficulty of the current task, or select another one best fitting our needs. In addition, detailed information about the individual’s performance is stored and analyzed to give continual feedback on the individual user’s progress.
A range of specific cognitive skills particularly affected by chemotherapy are addressed in the individualized training program. These include attention, mental flexibility, reaction time and speed of information processing, visual-spatial memory, and motor and verbal functions.
Back on Track’s training program consists of two distinct stages:
Assessment – After three 20 minute assessment sessions, an individualized program is created for you that match your own abilities and level of cognitive skills.
Training – Three times a week, 20 minutes a day on an individualized brain skill program with on-going feedback. Each practice session lasts for about 20 minutes and is made up of three to four tasks. The complete training program includes 24 practice sessions. This process, beginning again with an additional individualized skill assessment, is then repeated two additional times in its entirety.
