Although some of these age-related changes fall within the norm, others go a little further and make up what is called mild cognitive impairment. And in a significant percentage of cases, a more important deterioration may occur that significantly affects our day-to-day life and is framed within a degenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s disease.
The reasoning leads us to think that in this situation it is necessary to look for forms of intervention that help those affected to slow down the rate of this deterioration and maintain their capacities as best as possible. In recent years there has been an increase in studies that have investigated the power of cognitive training through new technologies, using the computer or virtual reality techniques. A recent article published in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (2015) has reviewed a total of 16 of these studies in order to assess the efficacy of this type of intervention with older people.
The results of this work, although with limitations due to the low number of investigations still available, are encouraging. Hanna Coyle and her collaborators write that generally, attention, executive functions, and memory are the areas that benefit the most from training. In addition, this type of program achieves other effects, such as reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms, and makes users believe that they use memory strategies better.
Interestingly, the duration of the training was not a variable that mediated its effectiveness, so it seems that, although the training time is short, improvements in cognitive functioning do occur. Even better, the results point in the direction of long-term maintenance of profits.
Although the authors of the article insist on the need for more studies in this field to confirm their findings, it seems that keeping the brain in shape could be worthwhile both in healthy people and in those who have some type of deterioration. We certainly don’t lose anything by trying.
Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
