Behavior changes offer clues that dementia could be brewing

When it comes to training your brain, speed may be more important than content. Researchers at AAIC presented 10-year results from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study, which looked at the impact of different kinds of brain training on 2785 older adults across the US.

To date, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists have largely rejected evidence that computer-based cognitive-training software or “brain games” have any effect on cognitive function.

“These new data add to a growing body of research that suggests more stimulating lifestyles, including more complex work environments with other people, are associated with better cognitive outcomes in later life”, said Maria C. Carrillo, Alzheimer’s Assn. chief science officer. They also suffer more brain damage than other Alzheimer’s patients. “Previous research has shown some promise for brain training in improving memory, although these small-scale studies have been inconclusive”. Physicians tested for depression and a list of other suspects. He wasn’t involved in developing the behavior checklist but said it could raise awareness of the neuropsychiatric link with dementia.

Of the three other groups, one got a classroom course on strategies for boosting memory; another got a classroom course on sharpening reasoning skills and the third received computerized training to increase their visual processing ability, the Times reported. One got training for memory improvement, one for reasoning and one with computerized training in speed-of-processing.

He proposed a questionnaire with 38 items divided into five groups for doctors to use in patients. Some had booster sessions a year later and three years later. And results presented at the meeting haven’t been through a rigorous peer review process.

The New Yorker wrote that “no brain game. had ever been shown in a large, randomized trial to prevent dementia”. That has sparked pushback from some scientists skeptical of claims manufacturers made, including that the products could reduce or reverse cognitive decline.

It’s estimated, Ismail said, that of older adults with mild cognitive impairment, about 13 percent progress to dementia per year.

That’s particularly true if you have a job requiring complex social interactions, as opposed to working on your own analyzing data or working complicated apparatus, said lead researcher Elizabeth Boots.

And, he said, “that out-of-character behavior can be the first sign of something going wrong in the brain”.

Although the checklist still needs to be tested in clinical studies, it may prove to be a useful tool in diagnosing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

—Does the person view herself/himself as a burden to family? UFOV decreases with age and is associated with a decline in performance on daily tasks, particularly driving a auto.

Edwards said she was frustrated with the scientific debate, which is one reason she agreed to present her findings before they were published. (Low UPSIT scores indicate decreased ability to correctly identify odors.) Low testing scores, but not cortical thickness, also predicted cognitive decline, although both measures were associated with those who developed dementia.

“The potential to benefit is great and the risks are none to minimal”, she says. It’s a cognitive skill that declines with age, and one that some researchers say contributes to the increase in “noise” in electrical communications between cells and among regions in the brain.