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How to enhance route learning and visuo-spatial working memory in aging: a training for residential care home residents
- Authors:
- MITOLO Micaela, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Aging and Mental Health, 21(5), 2017, pp.562-570.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Objectives: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a route-learning training in a group of older adults living in a residential care home. The authors verified the presence of training-specific effects in tasks similar to those trained – route-learning tasks – as well as transfer effects on related cognitive processes – visuo-spatial short-term memory (VSSTM; Corsi Blocks Test (CBT), forward version), visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM; CBT, backward version; Pathway Span Tasks; Jigsaw Puzzle Test) – and in self-report measures. The maintenance of training benefits was examined after 3 months. Method: Thirty 70–90-year-old residential care home residents were randomly assigned to the route-learning training group or to an active control group (involved in non-visuo-spatial activities). Results: The trained group performed better than the control group in the route-learning tasks, retaining this benefit 3 months later. Immediate transfer effects were also seen in visuo-spatial span tasks (i.e., CBT forward and backward version and Pathway Span Task); these benefits had been substantially maintained at the 3-month follow-up. Conclusion: These findings suggest that a training on route learning is a promising approach to sustain older adults’ environmental learning and some related abilities (e.g., VSSTM and VSWM), even in residential care home residents. (Edited publisher abstract)
Anxiety symptoms in mild cognitive impairment
- Authors:
- ROZZINI Luca, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24(3), March 2009, pp.300-305.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This study aimed to validate the Italian version of Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), an instrument that measures dimensional anxiety in elderly people, and assess whether MCI subjects with anxiety symptoms show different neuropsychological profiles in comparison with MCI without anxiety symptoms. Fifty-seven outpatients with MCI were consecutively recruited. All patients were assessed using a complete neuropsychological battery to detect the cognitive impairment, and the GAI for the presence of anxiety symptoms. Anxiety + patients (GAI 10) show more behavioral and psychological disturbances than patients with Anxiety- (GAI < 10); in particular they had more agitation, anxiety, depression and more sleep disorders. Moreover, Anxiety + patients are more compromised on instrumental daily functions and on executive functions evaluated with Trail Making B test (TMB). Linear Regression analysis was completed to estimate the coefficients of the linear equation, involving neuropsychological, psychobehavioural and functional characteristics: the executive functions (TMB) are the only variable independently related to the presence of anxiety disturbances. It is concluded that executive functions are independently related to anxiety disorders in MCI patients. It is hypothesized that the strict interaction between anxiety symptoms and executive functions could depend on specific pathological features at the level of caudate nucleus characterizing early phases of dementia.