A new computer programme for cerebral stimulations improves intellectual performance among older people. A pilot study from the University of Basel presenting evidence to this effect is being presented at the European Neurology Congress in Nice. It also shows how large the capacity of the brain to reorganize itself still is in the elderly.
A new computer based training programme can slow the loss of cognitive ability. The results of a pilot study to this effect are being presented by Dr. Iris Katharina Penner, associate professor at the institute for general psychology and methodology at the Psychology Faculty of the University of Basel (Switzerland), at the European Neurological Society Congress in Nice.
The programme goes by the name of BrainStim, and was developed by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Basel together with the Technical University Rapperswil (CH). The aim of the programme is to arrest deficits in speed of thought and working memory, which are typical of increasing age, not only by medication but also through therapeutic use of the brain’s capacities for regeneration and reorganization, so-called neuro-plasticity.
The brain is able to adapt to new challenges. If areas of the brain are destroyed by trauma or stroke, other still intact areas can at least partly take over affected functions. On the other hand unused areas of the brain become inactive.
BrainStim is a training programme which targets the function of the working memory: special modules train orientation on a city map, noticing numbers and images and the ability to continue a task correctly after it has been interrupted by another task.
In the Swiss pilot study nine healthy test subjects with an average age of 70 were invited to undertake in a period of four weeks four training sessions with BrainStim. Extensive neuropsychological examinations were carried out before and after the end of the training, examining areas such as memory, working memory, alertness, concentration, the speed of information processing, mental flexibility and intelligence.
The results demonstrated a significant increase in cognitive performance: researchers documented a sharp increase at the beginning which then leveled off, but with continual improvement.
“Among healthy elderly people, cognitive stimulation has the ability to positively influence brain function,” says Dr. Penner. “Studies examining whether this also holds true for people with degenerative neurological illness are already underway.”
Source: University of Basel, Via Alpha Galileo
