Name: assessment of age-related changes in cognitive functions using emocogmeter, a novel tablet-computer based approach
Uploaded: 2014-02-14T13:45:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach at JoVE.com

The EmoCogMeter was developed in cooperation with MicroMovie Media GmbH (http://www.micromovie.com).

1. Subjects
We recruited five hundred and forty-one psychologically and somatically healthy male and female subjects (age 44.47&#177; 9.41; range 18-89 years; IQ 113.90&#177;12.73). All subjects spoke German on a native speaker level. The study was carried out in accordance with the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the German Psychological Society. All subjects gave written informed consent before screening and were reimbursed for pa...

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The main goal of this study was to assess the usability of a tablet-computer based application in investigating the effects of age on cognitive functions across lifespan. As hypothesized, subjects showed an age-related decline in most neuropsychological domains. For some cognitive functions, such as memory span, working memory accuracy, and selective attention, the decline appears to occur later in life, as it was only observed when comparing middle-aged and old subjects. Other cognitive functions, mainly response latenc...

Human aging is associated with cognitive decline in all domains, but might be particularly pronounced for functions associated with the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobes, such as working memory (WM), episodic memory, and executive functions, (B&#228;ckman et al.1, Brehmer et al.2, Shing et al.3, West4). Correspondingly, brain-imaging studies showed that volume reductions are most prominent in prefrontal and mediotemporal areas (Raz et al.5,6) and that altered functioning within and between these regions might contribute to age-related cognitive changes (Sander et al.7, Park and Reuter-Lorenz8). Molecular imaging studies indicate that age-related dopamine losses might be powerful mediators of impairment in multiple cognitive tasks (B&#228;ckman et al.9,10; Erixon-Lindroth et al.11, Volkow et al.12). There is considerable evidence that perceptive and cognitive competencies in old age might be enhanced by emotional stimuli. The tendency for older adults to perform better on positively valenced stimuli with regard to measures of attention, recognition, and emotional memory enhancement has been termed the age-related positivity effect (Charles et al.13, Mather and Knight14, L&#246;ckenhoff and Carstensen15, Gr&#252;hn et al.16, Isaacowitz et al.17) and might reflect a difference in motivational goals as the end of life approaches (Carstensen and L&#246;ckenhoff18).
Neuropsychological testing of cognitive functions is usually conducted either by means of paper-and-pencil tests or computer-based tests on workstations, and might prove difficult when testing older subjects. Firstly, impaired motor skills might limit the use of paper-and-pencil tests and secondly, older subjects are often not familiar with keyboards, mouse pads, or other input devices applied during computer-based neuropsychological testing. As a result, older subjects often show poor motivation or compliance during neuropsychological testing, which might impair performance and decrease the validity of the findings. Furthermore, paper-and-pencil testing as well a computer-based testing on workstations requires permanent attendance of the experimenter for instruction and feedback as well as for documentation of results, which are then rarely transferred to a database and therefore only accessible to a very limited number of people. Thus, this &#34;conventional&#34; approach to neuropsychological testing ties up considerable human resources increases the probability of errors when transferring results, limits data access, and slows the workflow.
Our aim was to test a tablet-based application for the investigation of several neuropsychological domains. We used an iPad application as we hypothesized, that such a simple tool might be a quick and effective method to screen for and track cognitive deficits in clinical and outpatient settings. Regardless of age, subjects should be enabled to perform the tasks without instruction or feedback from an experimenter and should be able to complete the tests. Regardless of age, subjects should be enabled to perform the tasks without instruction or feedback from an experimenter. We hypothesized, that the touchpad would allow for a more intuitive use than other response devices (e.g. mouse pad or keyboard) particularly for older subjects, who are not familiar with computers. Heightened compliance and motivation for task performance might increase validity of results, while benefits for the experimenter should include a standardized and time saving testing procedure, a secure transfer of test results to a database and facilitation of data storage and analysis.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="732">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Wortschatz-Test (WST)</td>
			<td style="width:231px;">http://www.testzentrale.de/programm/wortschatztest.html</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td style="width:167px;">Assessment of Intelligence</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Berlin Affective Word List (BAWL)</td>
			<td style="width:231px;">V&#245; et al., 2009</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Stimuli for working memory task</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Predictive Analysis SoftWare, version 18.0</td>
			<td style="width:231px;">SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Statistical Analysis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">iPad</td>
			<td style="width:231px;">http://www.apple.com/de</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">EmoCogMeter</td>
			<td style="width:231px;">http://anem.charite.de/anem</td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td>Application for detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;"></td>
			<td style="width:231px;"></td>
			<td style="width:119px;"></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

assessment of age-related changes in cognitive functions using emocogmeter, a novel tablet-computer based approach

The main goal of this study was to assess the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on cognitive functions across the lifespan in a sample of 378 healthy subjects (age range 18-89 years). Consistent with previous findings we found an age-related cognitive decline across a wide range of neuropsychological domains (memory, attention, executive functions), thereby proving the usability of our tablet-based application. Regardless of prior computer experience, subjects of all age groups were able to perform the tasks without instruction or feedback from an experimenter. Increased motivation and compliance proved to be beneficial for task performance, thereby potentially increasing the validity of the results. Our promising findings underline the great clinical and practical potential of a tablet-based application for detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction.

Data from 19 subjects could not be recorded due to technical problems. All remaining subjects (N= 522) completed the tests and were clustered into 3 age groups (young: 18-30 years; middle-aged: 31-59 years; old: 60-89 years). Participants in these groups were matched according to gender and IQ resulting in a sample size of N= 378 (see Table 1). Performance for all neuropsychological tests in the 3 age groups is summarized in Table 2.
Learning and memory</p...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach at JoVE.com

Assessment of Age-related Changes in Cognitive Functions Using EmoCogMeter, a Novel Tablet-computer Based Approach

We tested the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on cognition. Results show an age-related cognitive decline, thereby proving the usability of our application. Findings underline the great clinical and practical potential of a tablet-based application for detection and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction.

The main goal of this study was to assess the usability of a tablet-computer-based application (EmoCogMeter) in investigating the effects of age on ...

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