Intelligent Assistive Technologies for Dementia

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Dementia Care ◽  
Assistive Technologies ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Sensory Deficits ◽  
Current State ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Software And Hardware ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

The development and implementation of intelligent assistive technologies (IATs) to compensate for the specific physical and cognitive deficits of older adults with dementia have been recognized by many as one of the most promising approaches to this emerging financial and caregiving burden. In the past 15 years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), pervasive and ubiquitous computing (PUC), and other advanced trends in software and hardware technology have led to the development and design of a wide range of IATs to help older people compensate for the physical and sensory deficits that may accompany dementia and age-related cognitive decline. These technologies are designed to support impaired older adults in the completion of activities of daily living, assist them in the prevention or management of risk, and/or maintain their recreational and social environment. The widespread implementation and use of assistive technologies is a very rapid process, which is reshaping dementia care and producing constantly changing strategies. This volume aims at providing an up-to-date overview of the current state of the art of assistive technologies for dementia care and an examination of their implications at the medical level, including psychological and clinical issues and their ethical and regulatory challenges. The overall goal of this book is to raise societal awareness on the use of IATs for dementia care and take a first step into developing an international regulatory and policy framework.

Activity Engagement in Cognitive Aging: A Review of the Evidence

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Rogalski ◽  
Muriel Quintana
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Omega 3 ◽  
Neuroprotective Effects ◽  
Activity Engagement ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

The population of older adults is rapidly increasing, as is the number and type of products and interventions proposed to prevent or reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline. Advocacy and prevention are part of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA’s) scope of practice documents, and speech-language pathologists must have basic awareness of the evidence contributing to healthy cognitive aging. In this article, we provide a brief overview outlining the evidence on activity engagement and its effects on cognition in older adults. We explore the current evidence around the activities of eating and drinking with a discussion on the potential benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, alcohol, and coffee. We investigate the evidence on the hypothesized neuroprotective effects of social activity, the evidence on computerized cognitive training, and the emerging behavioral and neuroimaging evidence on physical activity. We conclude that actively aging using a combination of several strategies may be our best line of defense against cognitive decline.

scholarly journals SENIOR FRIENDLY PACKAGING AND PRODUCT TESTING: FEEDBACK FROM OLDER CONSUMERS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S639-S640
Author(s):  
Lisa A Hollis-Sawyer ◽  
Alison O’Neil
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Color Contrast ◽  
Product Testing ◽  
Package Design ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract By 2050, older adults ages 65 or older will account for 83.7 million people in the U.S. population (An Aging Nation: The Older Population in the United States, 2014). It is imperative that products and technologies are designed to accommodate age-related changes that older adults are likely to experience. Given this population surge of older adults, there is a growing interest in identifying consumer products that are usable for older adults or “senior friendly.” Senior-friendly product testing (e.g., Senior Select®) focuses on the usability of various health and consumer products targeted to people with diminishment of any of the following: hearing, vision, taste, touch, smell, mobility & dexterity and /or mental acuity. A usability evaluation study was conducted in three senior living communities located in the Atlanta area. Twenty-nine participants ranged in age from 66 years old to 102 years old. Participants were shown a snack bar product and then asked to use the product themselves to perform a series of prepared tasks. After interacting with the product, participants were asked to share any comments that they had concerning the product. Issues of color contrast between the main packaging and the pull tab, easy of gripping and tearing the wrapper, the labeling of the nutrition information, and the package labeling (should refer to “adult” snack) were reported. Many respondents suggested that senior-friendly package design relates to their health and well-being. Implications toward a wide range of products for older adults of varying ability levels will be discussed.

scholarly journals Automated Speech Recognition Systems and Older Adults: A Literature Review and Synthesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Werner ◽  
Gaojian Huang ◽  
Brandon J. Pitts
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Speech Recognition ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Automated Speech Recognition ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Physical Changes

The number of older adults is growing significantly worldwide. At the same time, technological developments are rapidly evolving, and older populations are expected to interact more frequently with such sophisticated systems. Automated speech recognition (ASR) systems is an example of one technology that is increasingly present in daily life. However, age-related physical changes may alter speech production and limit the effectiveness of ASR systems for older individuals. The goal of this paper was to summarize the current knowledge on ASR systems and older adults. The PRISMA method was employed and 17 studies were compared on the basis of word error rate (WER). Overall, WER was found to be influenced by age, gender, and the number of speech samples used to train ASR systems. This work has implications for the development of future human-machine technologies that will be used by a wide range of age groups.

scholarly journals Closing the Capacity-Ability Gap: Using Technology to Support Aging With Disability

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy L Mitzner ◽  
Jon A Sanford ◽  
Wendy A Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Great Promise ◽  
User Requirements ◽  
Intervention Model ◽  
Current State ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Technology Intervention ◽  
Bridge Models ◽  
Age Related Changes

Abstract There is a critical need to develop supports for older adults who have a wide range of abilities, including those aging with long-term impairments. Without appropriate support, many individuals will be functioning below optimal levels and will face participation barriers. Technology holds great promise to provide individualized support for a wide range of abilities and for a variety of domains. To ensure technology interventions are designed well and meet research-documented user requirements, we need more specific, actionable models to provide guidance for those developing and designing interventions. In this paper, we present the TechSAge Aging and Disability Model to bridge models from the aging and disability literatures and to disambiguate the population of individuals aging into disability from those aging with disability (i.e., pre-existing impairments). We also present the TechSAge Technology Intervention Model to support aging with pre-existing impairments, which provides direction and touch points for technology interventions. These models reflect the complex and dynamic interaction between age-related changes and an individual’s prior capabilities and limitations. We describe the need for these models with respect to filling a gap in the disability and aging literature by highlighting the importance of differentiating between age-related changes and long-term impairments when designing interventions. We also show the need for quantitative and qualitative data to refine the models given complexities of the current state of the literature and survey data. The TechSAge Technology Intervention Model can be used to drive and inform technology redesign and development.

scholarly journals Examining cognitive training and executive function in older adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meggan Porteous ◽  
Sheida Rabipour ◽  
Patrick Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Flanker Task ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Hit Rates ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline ◽  
Back Task

Studies have shown that cognitive functions decline with increasing age. As the population of older adults (OA) has grown, interest in cognitive training programs (CTP) has steadily expanded. The present study investigated whether CTP can lead to improvements in the performance of OA on cognitive tasks. Thirty-five adults (OA; 60-87 years) were recruited to complete 25 sessions of a CTP over five weeks, with assessments completed before and after the program. Thirty-two young adults (YA; 17-27 years) were also recruited to complete one assessment for baseline comparison with OA. During assessments, participants were evaluated using tasks of executive function, including the N-back task of working memory and Flanker task of inhibition. The response time (RT) and hit rates of YA and OA on these tasks were examined at baseline, as well as changes in OA pre- and post-training. Repeated measures analysis of variance indicated a reduction of pre- and post-training RT for the Flanker task. There was no post-training change in RT on the N-back task. While OA hit rates did not change significantly pre- and post-assessment on the Flanker task, they showed increased hit rates post-training in the N-back task. In both tasks, OA and YA hit rates and RT were significantly different, with YA demonstrating lower RT and hit rate compared to OA. Follow-up studies will determine whether other factors can also lead to improvement. Determining whether CTP can improve cognitive performance in OA can help determine the potential of such approaches to prevent or rehabilitate age-related cognitive decline.

scholarly journals Visual attention during seeing for speaking in healthy aging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn L Rehrig ◽  
Taylor R. Hayes ◽  
John M. Henderson ◽  
Fernanda Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Extensive Experience ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Logistic Mixed Effects Model ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

As we age, we accumulate a wealth of information, but cognitive processing becomes slower and less efficient. There is mixed evidence on whether world knowledge compensates for age-related cognitive decline (Umanath & Marsh, 2014). We investigated whether older adults are more likely to fixate more meaningful scene locations than are young adults. Young (N=30) and older adults (N=30, aged 66-82) described scenes while eye movements and descriptions were recorded. We used a logistic mixed-effects model to determine whether fixated scene locations differed in meaning, salience, and center distance from locations that were not fixated, and whether those properties differed for locations young and older adults fixated. Meaning predicted fixated locations well overall, though the locations older adults fixated were less meaningful than those that young adults fixated. These results suggest that older adults’ visual attention is less sensitive to meaning than young adults, despite extensive experience with scenes.

scholarly journals Mindfulness, Education, and Exercise for age-related cognitive decline: Study protocol, pilot study results, and description of the baseline sample

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-594
Author(s):  
Julie Loebach Wetherell ◽  
Hayley S Ripperger ◽  
Michelle Voegtle ◽  
Beau M Ances ◽  
David Balota ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Randomized Controlled Trial ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Stress Reduction ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Randomized Controlled ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Vigorous Intensity ◽  
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

Background/Aims Age-related cognitive decline is a pervasive problem in our aging population. To date, no pharmacological treatments to halt or reverse cognitive decline are available. Behavioral interventions, such as physical exercise and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, may reduce or reverse cognitive decline, but rigorously designed randomized controlled trials are needed to test the efficacy of such interventions. Methods Here, we describe the design of the Mindfulness, Education, and Exercise study, an 18-month randomized controlled trial that will assess the effect of two interventions—mindfulness training plus moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise or moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise alone—compared with a health education control group on cognitive function in older adults. An extensive battery of biobehavioral assessments will be used to understand the mechanisms of cognitive remediation, by using structural and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and metabolic and behavioral assessments. Results We provide the results from a preliminary study (n = 29) of non-randomized pilot participants who received both the exercise and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction interventions. We also provide details on the recruitment and baseline characteristics of the randomized controlled trial sample (n = 585). Conclusion When complete, the Mindfulness, Education, and Exercise study will inform the research community on the efficacy of these widely available interventions improve cognitive functioning in older adults.

The efficiency of using everyday technological devices by older adults: the role of cognitive functions

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
KARIN SLEGERS ◽  
MARTIN P. J. VAN BOXTEL ◽  
JELLE JOLLES
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Speed Of Information Processing ◽  
Technological Transfer ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Valid Test ◽  
Automatic Teller Machines ◽  
Age Related Cognitive Decline

ABSTRACTOlder adults experience more problems than younger people when using everyday technological devices such as personal computers, automatic teller machines and microwave ovens. Such problems may have serious consequences for the autonomy of older adults since the ability to use technology is becoming essential in everyday life. One potential cause of these difficulties is age-related decline of cognitive functions. To test the role of cognitive abilities in performing technological tasks, we designed the Technological Transfer Test (TTT). This new and ecologically valid test comprises eight technological tasks that are common in modern life (operating a CD player, a telephone, an ATM, a train-ticket vending machine, a microwave-oven, an alarm clock, a smart card charging device and a telephone voice menu). The TTT and a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests were administered to 236 healthy adults aged 64–75 years on two separate occasions. The results demonstrated that the performance time for five of the eight tasks was predicted by cognitive abilities. The exact cognitive functions affecting technological performance varied by the technological task. Among several measures and components of cognition, the speed of information processing and cognitive flexibility had the greatest predictive power. The results imply that age-related cognitive decline has a profound effect on the interaction between older adults and technological appliances.

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