Struggling with dementia? This app may help you
New brain-training application called ‘Game Show’ could boost patient’s memory, says study
Cambridge scientists have developed a braintraining app that may help improve the memory of patients suffering from early stages of dementia. The app called ‘Game Show’ challenges users to match patterns and locations.
Researchers from University of Cambridge in the UK tested the effects of the game on patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), which has been described as the transitional stage between healthy ageing and dementia.
The team noted that patients who played the game made around a third fewer errors, needed fewer trials and improved their memory score by around 40 per cent, showing that they had correctly remembered the locations of more information at the first attempt on a test of episodic memory.
Researchers noted that patients who played the game made around a third fewer errors, needed fewer trials and improved their memory score by around 40 per cent, showing that they had correctly remembered the locations of more information at the first attempt on a test of episodic memory.
Episodic memory is important for day-to-day activities and is used, for example, when remembering where we left our keys in the house or where we parked our car in a multi-story car park. Compared to the control group, the cognitive training group also retained more complex visual information after training.
In addition, participants in the cognitive training group indicated that they enjoyed playing the game and were motivated to continue playing across the eight hours of cognitive training. Their confidence and subjective memory also increased with game play. ment with cognitive training.
“There’s increasing evidence that brain training can be beneficial for boosting cognition and brain health, but it needs to be based on sound research and developed with patients,” said Barbara Sahakian, professor at the University of Cambridge.