Cognitive training with and without additional physical activity in healthy older adults: cognitive effects, neurobiological mechanisms, and prediction of training success.

Data is inconsistent concerning the question whether cognitive-physical training (CPT) yields stronger cognitive gains than cognitive training (CT). Effects of additional counseling, neurobiological mechanisms, and predictors have scarcely been studied. Healthy older adults were trained with CT (n = 20), CPT (n = 25), or CPT with counseling (CPT+C; n = 23). Cognition, physical fitness, BDNF, IGF-1, and VEGF were assessed at pre- and post-test. No interaction effects were found except for one effect showing that CPT+C led to stronger gains in verbal fluency than CPT (p = 0.03). However, this superiority could not be assigned to additional physical training gains. Low baseline cognitive performance and BDNF, not carrying apoE4, gains in physical fitness and the moderation of gains in physical fitness × gains in BDNF predicted training success. Although all types of interventions seem successful to enhance cognition, our data do not support the hypotheses that CPT shows superior CT gains compared to CT or that CPT+C adds merit to CPT. However, as CPT leads to additional gains in physical fitness which in turn is known to have positive impact on cognition in the long-term, CPT seems more beneficial. Training success can partly be predicted by neuropsychological, neurobiological, and genetic parameters. Unique Identifier: WHO ICTRP (http://www.who.int/ictrp); ID: DRKS00005194.

Sex differences in cognitive training effects of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Cognitive training has been shown to be effective in improving cognitive functions in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). However, data on factors that may influence training gains including sociodemographic variables such as sex or age is rare. In this study, the impact of sex on cognitive training effects was examined in N = 32 age- and education-matched female (n = 16) and male (n = 16) amnestic MCI patients (total sample: age M = 74.97, SD = 5.21; education M = 13.50, SD = 3.11). Patients participated in a six-week multidomain cognitive training program including 12 sessions each 90 min twice weekly in mixed groups with both women and men. Various cognitive domains were assessed before and after the intervention. Despite comparable baseline performance in women and men, we found significant interaction effects Time × Sex in immediate (p = .04) and delayed verbal episodic memory (p= .045) as well as in working memory (p = .042) favoring the female MCI patients. In contrast, the overall analyses with the total sample did not reveal any significant within-subject effects Time. In conclusion, our results give preliminary evidence for stronger cognitive training improvements of female compared to male MCI patients. More generally, they emphasize the importance of sex-sensitive evaluations of cognitive training effects. Possible underlying mechanisms of the found sex differences are discussed and directions for future research are given.

Effects of cognitive training with additional physical activity compared to pure cognitive training in healthy older adults.

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive training (CT) has been reported to improve cognition in older adults. Its combination with protective factors such as physical activity (CPT) has rarely been studied, but it has been suggested that CPT might show stronger effects than pure CT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Healthy older adults (aged 50-85 years) were trained with CPT (n=15) or CT (n=15). Interventions were conducted in 90-minute sessions twice weekly for 6.5 weeks. Cognitive functions were assessed before and immediately after the interventions, and at 1-year follow-up. RESULTS: The main finding was an interaction effect on attention, with comparable gains from CPT and CT from pre- to post-test, but stronger effects of CPT to follow-up (P=0.02). Significant effects were found in subjects in terms of cognitive state (P=0.02), letter verbal fluency (P=0.00), and immediate (P=0.00) and delayed (P=0.01) verbal memory. Post hoc analyses indicated that these latter domains were affected differentially by CPT and CT. No significant between-subject effects were found. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that CPT might lead to stronger long-term effects on attention. However, as the difference between CT and CPT was only evident at follow-up, these effects cannot be interpreted as a direct consequence of CPT; they may have been related to sustained physical activity after the training. Other domains were improved by both interventions, but no typical pattern could be identified. Possible underlying mechanisms are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

Information and communication technologies for promoting and sustaining quality of life, health and self-sufficiency in ageing societies--outcomes of the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (GAL).

Many societies across the world are confronted with demographic changes, usually related to increased life expectancy and, often, relatively low birth rates. Information and communication technologies (ICT) may contribute to adequately support senior citizens in aging societies with respect to quality of life and quality and efficiency of health care processes. For investigating and for providing answers on whether new information and communication technologies can contribute to keeping, or even improving quality of life, health and self-sufficiency in ageing societies through new ways of living and new forms of care, the Lower Saxony Research Network Design of Environments for Ageing (GAL) had been established as a five years research project, running from 2008 to 2013. Ambient-assisted living (AAL) technologies in personal and home environments were especially important. In this article we report on the GAL project, and present some of its major outcomes after five years of research. We report on major challenges and lessons learned in running and organizing such a large, inter- and multidisciplinary project and discuss GAL in the context of related research projects. With respect to research outcomes, we have, for example, learned new knowledge about multimodal and speech-based human-machine-interaction mechanisms for persons with functional restrictions, and identified new methods and developed new algorithms for identifying activities of daily life and detecting acute events, particularly falls. A total of 79 apartments of senior citizens had been equipped with specific "GAL technology", providing new insights into the use of sensor data for smart homes. Major challenges we had to face were to deal constructively with GAL's highly inter- and multidisciplinary aspects, with respect to research into GAL's application scenarios, shifting from theory and lab experimentation to field tests, and the complexity of organizing and, in our view, successfully managing such a large project. Overall it can be stated that, from our point of view, the GAL research network has been run successfully and has achieved its major research objectives. Since we now know much more on how and where to use AAL technologies for new environments of living and new forms of care, a future focus for research can now be outlined for systematically planned studies, scientifically exploring the benefits of AAL technologies for senior citizens, in particular with respect to quality of life and the quality and efficiency of health care.