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ICA results of intrinsic brain networks. NOTE: CEN = central executive network; DLPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; dACC = dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; DMN = default mode network; FEF = frontal eye fields; FPN = frontoparietal network. IPL = inferior parietal lobule; mPFC = medial prefrontal cortex; PCC = posterior cingulate cortex; PVA = primary visual areas; SA = somatosensory network; SN = salience network; VN = visual network;
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Adaptation capacity is critical for maintaining cognition, yet it is understudied in groups at risk for dementia. Autonomic nervous system (ANS) is critical for neurovisceral integration and is a key contributor to adaptation capacity. To determine the central nervous system's top-down regulation on ANS, we conducted a mechanistic randomized contro...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... average z-score of 2.5 < z < 8 was defined as the threshold for the group-ICA maps. Six components (VN, CEN, SA, SN, FPN, and DMN; see Figure 1) relevant to our research questions were identified by two raters who visually compared our components to ICA results from other relevant studies ( Beckmann et al., 2005;Sorg et al., 2007;van Oort et al., 2017;Wang et al., 2008). ...
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This research is examining the effect of Consumer Price Index (CPI) to calculate the change in Annual Net Salary (ANS), across the three Balkan countries: Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The study will be using the data with the graphical representations and publications regarding CPI and ANS in the period from 2014 to 2018 from the "Agency of Statisti...
Citations
... Deriving the assessments from gamified [54], evidence-based brain training exercises is a strength of our approach. To the extent that the training exercises have demonstrated neurological benefit (eg, neural timing [55,56], brain activation [57], and functional connectivity [58][59][60]), cognitive benefit (eg, speed [61][62][63], attention [56,64,65], and memory [62,65,66]), and functional benefit (eg, mood [67][68][69][70], quality of life [71], health [72][73][74], driving safety [75,76], balance [77][78][79], verbal fluency [80], and everyday performance [81][82][83]), assessments that replicate the task demands of the training exercises should then be able to evaluate the same neurological networks, cognitive constructs, and functional abilities that are engaged and improved by their associated brain training exercise. ...
Background: An ongoing global challenge is managing brain health and understanding how performance changes across the lifespan.
Objective: We developed and deployed a set of self-administrable, computerized assessments designed to measure key indexes of brain health across the visual and auditory sensory modalities. In this pilot study, we evaluated the usability, feasibility, and performance distributions of the assessments in a home-based, real-world setting without supervision.
Methods: Potential participants were untrained users who self-registered on an existing brain training app called BrainHQ. Participants were contacted via a recruitment email and registered remotely to complete a demographics questionnaire and 29 unique assessments on their personal devices. We examined participant engagement, descriptive and psychometric properties of the assessments, associations between performance and self-reported demographic variables, cognitive profiles, and factor loadings.
Results: Of the 365,782 potential participants contacted via a recruitment email, 414 (0.11%) registered, of whom 367 (88.6%) completed at least one assessment and 104 (25.1%) completed all 29 assessments. Registered participants were, on average, aged 63.6 (SD 14.8; range 13-107) years, mostly female (265/414, 64%), educated (329/414, 79.5% with a degree), and White (349/414, 84.3% White and 48/414, 11.6% people of color). A total of 72% (21/29) of the assessments showed no ceiling or floor effects or had easily modifiable score bounds to eliminate these effects. When correlating performance with self-reported demographic variables, 72% (21/29) of the assessments were sensitive to age, 72% (21/29) of the assessments were insensitive to gender, 93% (27/29) of the assessments were insensitive to race and ethnicity, and 93% (27/29) of the assessments were insensitive to education-based differences. Assessments were brief, with a mean duration of 3 (SD 1.0) minutes per task. The pattern of performance across the assessments revealed distinctive cognitive profiles and loaded onto 4 independent factors.
Conclusions: The assessments were both usable and feasible and warrant a full normative study. A digital toolbox of scalable and self-administrable assessments that can evaluate brain health at a glance (and longitudinally) may lead to novel future applications across clinical trials, diagnostics, and performance optimization.
... Cognitive training for older adults has garnered widespread interest from its potential for maintaining cognition or delaying its decline (Rebok et al., 2014;Lin et al., 2016Lin et al., , 2020; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy et al., 2017). While the aging brain remains plastic, even in pre-clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (Burke and Barnes, 2006), evidence supporting cognitive training is inconsistent(National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy et al., 2017;Sikkes et al., 2021). ...
... Within-network FC in the DMN, FPCN and VAN progressively weakens over time in brain aging and contributes to cognitive and affective dysregulation (Malagurski et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2022). These networks exhibit functional aberrations in AD (Bai et al., 2008;Li et al., 2012;Badhwar et al., 2017;Ibrahim et al., 2021), but they are also consistently implicated in training gains (Lin et al., 2020). ...
... One study that examined the relationship between positive affect and attentional scope found that, while positive affect impairs selective attention on a target, it increases the spatial encoding of distant distractors, thus facilitating tasks that require more global, divided attention (Rowe et al., 2007). PAE also promotes adaptation: evidence suggests that arousal modulates attentional filtering of distractions, whereas valence modulates sustained attention on task-relevant goals, suggesting that adaptation to environmental challenges can increase the availability and flexibility of neurophysiological resources to support EF (Lin et al., 2016(Lin et al., , 2020Chen et al., 2020). Relevant to our findings, PAE may help enhance the intervention effect on EF via two pathways that modulate interference of neurodegeneration on plasticity: (i) a top-down pathway creating alternative, specific cognitive strategies for task that require attentional resources and adaptation, and (ii) a bottom-up pathway providing general neurophysiological resources. ...
Background
Cognitive training for older adults varies in efficacy, but it is unclear why some older adults benefit more than others. Positive affective experience (PAE), referring to high positive valence and/or stable arousal states across everyday scenarios, and associated functional networks, can protect plasticity mechanisms against Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration, which may contribute to training outcome variability.
Objective
Investigate whether PAE explains variability in cognitive training outcomes by disrupting the adverse effect of neurodegeneration on plasticity.
Design and Subjects
Secondary analysis of a randomized control trial of cognitive training with concurrent real or sham brain stimulation (39 older adults with mild cognitive impairment; mean age, 71).
Methods
Moderation analyses, with change in episodic memory or executive function as the outcome, PAE or baseline resting-state connectivity as the moderator, and baseline neurodegeneration as the predictor.
Results
PAE stability and baseline default mode network (DMN) connectivity disrupted the effect of neurodegeneration on plasticity in executive function but not episodic memory.
Conclusions
PAE stability and degree of DMN integrity both explained cognitive training outcome variability, by reducing the adverse effect of neurodegeneration on cognitive plasticity. We highlight the need to account for PAE, brain aging factors, and their interactions with plasticity in cognitive training.
... For example, in our Computer-Based Cognitive Training for Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (CogTE) study, relative to an active control, cognitive training on speed of processing was hypothesized to improve attention and processing speed and increase brain functional activation in prefrontal subregions associated with these cognitive domains in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). 34 In the behavior domain, working memory training has been predicted to lead to changes in fluid intelligence. 35 Relatedly, we need to pay attention to several interrelated study design aspects that would influence the evaluation of the intervention effect, including the choice of usual care control versus attention control versus active control depending on the stage and purpose of intervention testing, the difference between absolute versus relative efficacy (i.e., within-group vs. between-group changes after intervention), and the decision on hypothesis testing on noninferiority versus equivalence versus superiority effects when comparing a newly developed cognitive training with a control condition. ...
Unlabelled:
Cognitive training may promote healthy brain aging and prevent dementia, but results from individual studies are inconsistent. There are disagreements on how to evaluate cognitive training interventions between clinical and basic scientists. Individual labs typically create their own assessment and training materials, leading to difficulties reproducing methods. Here, we advocate for improved interoperability: the exchange and cooperative development of a consensus for cognitive training design, analysis, and result interpretation. We outline five guiding principles for improving interoperability: (i) design interoperability, developing standard design and analysis models; (ii) material interoperability, promoting sharing of materials; (iii) interoperability incentives; (iv) privacy and security norms, ensuring adherence to accepted ethical standards; and (v) interpretability prioritization, encouraging a shared focus on neurobiological mechanisms to improve clinical relevance. Improving interoperability will allow us to develop scientifically optimized, clinically useful cognitive training programs to slow/prevent brain aging.
Highlights:
Interoperability facilitates progress via resource sharing and comparability.Better interoperability is needed in cognitive training for brain aging research.We adapt an interoperability framework to cognitive training research.We suggest five guiding principles for improved interoperability.We propose an open-source pipeline to facilitate interoperability.
... Games providing face-valid cognitive stimulation that are rated E (for everyone) by the Entertainment Software Rating Board are used. The randomized conditions are designed to match with the expectationbased influence on cognitive performance, intensity, and overall engagement and have been validated in our pilot testing and prior research (e.g., [43][44][45][46][47][48]). Additional detail on the study exercises may be obtained by contacting the Principal Investigator but are not shared here to prevent unblinding. ...
Background
To address the rising prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, effective interventions that can be widely disseminated are warranted. The Preventing Alzheimer's with Cognitive Training study (PACT) investigates a commercially available computerized cognitive training program targeting improved Useful Field of View Training (UFOVT) performance. The primary goal is to test the effectiveness of UFOVT to reduce incidence of clinically defined mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia with a secondary objective to examine if effects are moderated by plasma β-amyloid level or apolipoprotein E e4 (APOE e4) allele status.
Methods/design
This multisite study utilizes a randomized, controlled experimental design with blinded assessors and investigators. Individuals who are 65 years of age and older are recruited from the community. Eligible participants who demonstrate intact cognitive status (Montreal Cognitive Assessment score > 25) are randomized and asked to complete 45 sessions of either a commercially available computerized-cognitive training program (UFOVT) or computerized games across 2.5 years. After three years, participants are screened for cognitive decline. For those demonstrating decline or who are part of a random subsample, a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is completed. Those who perform below a pre-specified level are asked to complete a clinical evaluation, including an MRI, to ascertain clinical diagnosis of normal cognition, MCI, or dementia. Participants are asked to provide blood samples for analyses of Alzheimer's disease related biomarkers.
Discussion
The PACT study addresses the rapidly increasing prevalence of dementia. Computerized cognitive training may provide a non-pharmaceutical option for reducing incidence of MCI or dementia to improve public health.
Registration: The PACT study is registered at http://Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03848312
... The electrode montage, which was chosen specifically to avoid the confounding scenario of two electrodes exerting effects in different regions, may have stimulated networks more relevant to processing speed compared to accuracy. There is some evidence to suggest that anodal stimulation of the right hemisphere may have an effect on working memory accuracy (Giglia et al., 2014;Trumbo et al., 2016) while processing speed may be more left hemispheredependent (Hillary et al., 2010;Lin et al., 2020). Cognitive tasks involving both speed and accuracy may also be considered as a single process expressed as an "efficiency score, " on the assumptions that there are necessary trade-offs between speed and accuracy (Bruyer and Brysbaert, 2011;Vandierendonck, 2017) and that they are highly related cognitive domains mediated by overlapping brain networks (McAllister et al., 2001;Hillary et al., 2010;Lin et al., 2020). ...
... There is some evidence to suggest that anodal stimulation of the right hemisphere may have an effect on working memory accuracy (Giglia et al., 2014;Trumbo et al., 2016) while processing speed may be more left hemispheredependent (Hillary et al., 2010;Lin et al., 2020). Cognitive tasks involving both speed and accuracy may also be considered as a single process expressed as an "efficiency score, " on the assumptions that there are necessary trade-offs between speed and accuracy (Bruyer and Brysbaert, 2011;Vandierendonck, 2017) and that they are highly related cognitive domains mediated by overlapping brain networks (McAllister et al., 2001;Hillary et al., 2010;Lin et al., 2020). As tDCS effects are often difficulty-dependent (Pope et al., 2015) and an optimal number of stimulation sessions has not been established for cognitive rehabilitation, it is reasonable to hypothesize that an extended stimulation protocol may be more efficacious at facilitating working memory accuracy. ...
Background: Persistent posttraumatic symptoms (PPS) may manifest after a mild-moderate traumatic brain injury (mmTBI) even when standard brain imaging appears normal. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) represents a promising treatment that may ameliorate pathophysiological processes contributing to PPS.
Objective/Hypothesis: We hypothesized that in a mmTBI population, active tDCS combined with training would result in greater improvement in executive functions and post-TBI cognitive symptoms and increased resting state connectivity of the stimulated region, i.e., left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) compared to control tDCS.
Methods: Thirty-four subjects with mmTBI underwent baseline assessments of demographics, symptoms, and cognitive function as well as resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) in a subset of patients ( n = 24). Primary outcome measures included NIH EXAMINER composite scores, and the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI). All participants received 10 daily sessions of 30 min of executive function training coupled with active or control tDCS (2 mA, anode F3, cathode right deltoid). Imaging and assessments were re-obtained after the final training session, and assessments were repeated after 1 month. Mixed-models linear regression and repeated measures analyses of variance were calculated for main effects and interactions.
Results: Both active and control groups demonstrated improvements in executive function (EXAMINER composite: p < 0.001) and posttraumatic symptoms (NSI cognitive: p = 0.01) from baseline to 1 month. Active anodal tDCS was associated with greater improvements in working memory reaction time compared to control ( p = 0.007). Reaction time improvement correlated significantly with the degree of connectivity change between the right DLPFC and the left anterior insula ( p = 0.02).
Conclusion: Anodal tDCS improved reaction time on an online working memory task in a mmTBI population, and decreased connectivity between executive network and salience network nodes. These findings generate important hypotheses for the mechanism of recovery from PPS after mild-moderate TBI.
... There are several advantages of targeting sensory-driven PS/A among groups at-risk for dementia: (A) PS/A is more plastic and flexible, so modifiable, than many higher level cognitive processes, especially in old age (Salthouse, 1996); (B) PS/A declines in general during typical aging (Lipnicki et al., 2017;Salthouse, 1996Salthouse, , 2010, which indicates room for improvement across at-risk groups; (C) sensory-related brain networks remain relatively robust to dementia pathologies, which ensure the potential for plasticity during training (Braak et al., 2011); and (D) aging-related neural dedifferentiation leads to greater integration across multiple brain networks beyond sensory circuits for regulating sensory responses (Koen and Rugg, 2019); therefore training using sensory stimuli may stimulate "higher-level" networks more directly in older adults. Given these advantages, it is not surprising that speed of processing (SOP) training, focused on enhancing PS/A, is one of the most widely examined types of computerized cognitive training in aging populations (see e.g., ACTIVE (Ball et al., 2002;Rebok et al., 2014), IMPACT (Smith et al., 2009), IHAMS (Wolinsky et al., 2013), CogTE (Lin et al., 2016;Lin et al., 2020)). For example, in our previous CogTE study (Chen et al., 2020b;Lin et al., 2020), we revealed significantly better learning (i.e., near transfer effect), and greater activation of superior frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in PS/A tasks in a vision-based SOP training than an active control group; and the changes in learning and changes in brain activation were significantly positively correlated. ...
... Given these advantages, it is not surprising that speed of processing (SOP) training, focused on enhancing PS/A, is one of the most widely examined types of computerized cognitive training in aging populations (see e.g., ACTIVE (Ball et al., 2002;Rebok et al., 2014), IMPACT (Smith et al., 2009), IHAMS (Wolinsky et al., 2013), CogTE (Lin et al., 2016;Lin et al., 2020)). For example, in our previous CogTE study (Chen et al., 2020b;Lin et al., 2020), we revealed significantly better learning (i.e., near transfer effect), and greater activation of superior frontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in PS/A tasks in a vision-based SOP training than an active control group; and the changes in learning and changes in brain activation were significantly positively correlated. While most studies have relied on vision-based SOP tasks, there is evidence that involving other senses, particularly audition, leads to additional benefits. ...
... These signals also related to changes in brain function in regions known to be involved in autonomic regulation. Additionally, we have found that related autonomic measures can be modified by cognitive training, suggesting that these markers may provide a means of improving transfer effects by identifying within-subject mismatches between capacity and task requirements (Lin et al., 2020). Specifically, an initial decrease or suppression of the PNS response occurs when the brain circuits must allocate neural resources in response to the stimuli, thereby suffering from diminished capacity to exert control over the PNS. ...
Cognitive training is a promising tool for slowing or preventing cognitive decline in older adults at-risk for dementia. Its success, however, has been limited by a lack of evidence showing that it reliably causes broad training effects: improvements in cognition across a range of domains that lead to real-world benefits. Here, we propose a framework for enhancing the effect of cognitive training interventions in brain aging. The focus is on (A) developing cognitive training task paradigms that are informed by population-level cognitive characteristics and pathophysiology, and (B) personalizing how these sets are presented to participants during training via feedback loops that aim to maximize “mismatch” between participant capacity and training demands using both adaptation and random variability. In this way, cognitive training can better alter whole-brain topology in a manner that supports broad training effects in the context of brain aging.
... Indeed, in their narrative review [96], La Rovere et al. [96] indicated that exercise training limited the effect of aging on BRS, as well as its consequences on blood pressure and its underlying determinants. In addition, a recent study reported that a cognitive training, involving tasks that target processing speed and attention, improved these cognitive domains as well as cardiac autonomic control (as measured by heart rate variability) in older adults suffering from amnesia and mild cognitive impairment [97]. Surprisingly, we found no changes in BRS following CT and ET. ...
... A possible explanation may be the training dose [98]. In fact, the protocol by Lin et al. [97] consisted in four 1-h sessions per week for 6 weeks, which represented a 4-time higher dose than in our study. The issue of a possible dose-response relationship should be explored more specifically. ...
Aging is characterized by cognitive decline affecting daily functioning. To manage this socio-economic challenge, several non-pharmacolog- ical methods such as physical, cognitive, and com- bined training are proposed. Although there is an important interest in this subject, the literature is still heterogeneous. The superiority of simultaneous train- ing compared to passive control and physical train- ing alone seems clear but very few studies compared simultaneous training to cognitive training alone. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the effect of simultaneous exercise and cognitive training on several cognitive domains in healthy older adults, in comparison with either training alone. Thirty-five healthy older adults were randomized into one of three experimental groups: exercise training, cogni- tive training, and simultaneous exercise and cognitive training. The protocol involved two 30-min sessions per week for 24 weeks. Cognitive performance in several domains, pre-frontal cortex oxygenation, and baroreflex sensitivity were assessed before and after the intervention. All groups improved executive per- formance, including flexibility or working memory. We found a group by time interaction for inhibition cost (F(2,28) = 6.44; p < 0.01) and baroreflex sensitivity during controlled breathing (F(2,25)=4.22; p=0.01), the magnitude of improvement of each variable being associated (r=-0.39; p=0.03). We also found a decrease in left and right pre-frontal cortex oxygena- tion in all groups during the trail making test B. A simultaneous exercise and cognitive training are more efficient than either training alone to improve execu- tive function and baroreflex sensitivity. The results of this study may have important clinical repercussions by allowing to optimize the interventions designed to maintain the physical and cognitive health of older adults.
... Los cambios cognitivos incluyen disminución de la velocidad de procesamiento, la memoria de trabajo, la respuesta de inhibición y un declive en las funciones sensoriales. Estas modificaciones tienen un componente neurobiológico subyacente tanto en las estructuras como en los procesos fisiológicos cerebrales (16) . ...
Obesity and overweight in older adults are associated with an increased risk of cognitive diseases, contributing to decreased functional performance. The objective of this review is to analyze the effect of exercise on memory in older adults with obesity or overweight. The methodology uses the words MESH: Population = aged, overweight, obesity; Intervention = exercise; Comparison = control groups; Result = Memory; Design: randomized controlled trial. Searching until December 2021 in PUBMED, SCIELO, BVSALUD, LILACS, TRIP DATABASE, and MEDLINE. Six thousand eight hundred thirty-two items are identified. We analyzed five studies with 214 participants. The mean body mass index is 28.6 ± 1.1 kg/m2, and the initial average Mini mental is 23.6 ± 2.1 points. The intervention with exercise is from twelve to twenty-six weeks. In the random-effects model, exercise improves the mean Mini Mental by MD = 2.6 points (1.7 to 3.4) p < 0.01. Heterogeneity (87.7 %). Exercise improves cognitive function (memory) in older adults who are overweight or obese.
... Importantly, measurement of the ANS using ECG is highly scalable and can be done with wearable devices that give this potential intervention high clinical relevance if it can be leveraged effectively to improve cognitive training outcomes. This research, therefore, inspired intervention development and pilot testing research (stage 1) to test whether cognitive training can improve ANS function via this shared mechanism involving the cingulate cortex [30], and whether improving ANS function can further strengthen the effect of cognitive training in cognitive aging [31]. Separately, in a stage 2 trial, we also revealed that selected patterns of ANS function can predict neuroplasticity in the cingulate cortex following training [32]. ...
Brain aging leads to difficulties in functional independence. Mitigating these difficulties can benefit from technology that predicts, monitors, and modifies brain aging. Translational research prioritizes solutions that can be causally linked to specific pathophysiologies at the same time as demonstrating improvements in impactful real-world outcome measures. This poses a challenge for brain aging technology that needs to address the tension between mechanism-driven precision and clinical relevance. In the current opinion, by synthesizing emerging mechanistic, translational, and clinical research-related frameworks, and our own development of technology-driven brain aging research, we suggest incorporating the appreciation of four desiderata (causality, informativeness, transferability, and fairness) of explainability into early-stage research that designs and tests brain aging technology. We apply a series of work on electrocardiography-based “peripheral” neuroplasticity markers from our work as an illustration of our proposed approach. We believe this novel approach will promote the development and adoption of brain aging technology that links and addresses brain pathophysiology and functional independence in the field of translational research.
... BOLD fMRI data were collected using a gradient echo-planar imaging sequence (TR/TE = 2500 ms/30 ms, FA = 90, 64 × 64 matrix, 4mm 3 in-plane resolution, 4 mm slice thickness, 37 axial slices). Participants underwent a 5-minute resting-state scan, during which they were instructed to relax with their eyes open, followed by a 5-minute block-design "target among distractors" visual attention task (see also Lin et al., 2020)). The stimuli were presented in 5 blocks, each of which consisted of 6 trials, for a total duration of 42 s; blocks were alternated with fixation periods of 20 s. ...
Effective cognitive training must improve cognition beyond the trained domain (show a transfer effect) and be applicable to dementia-risk populations, e.g., amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Theories suggest training should target processes that 1) show robust engagement, 2) are domain-general, and 3) reflect long-lasting changes in brain organization. Brain regions that connect to many different networks (i.e., show high participation coefficient; PC) are known to support integration. This capacity is 1) relatively preserved in aMCI, 2) required across a wide range of cognitive domains, and 3) trait-like. In 49 individuals with aMCI that completed a 6-week visual speed of processing training (VSOP) and 28 active controls, enhancement in PC was significantly more related to transfer to working memory at global and network levels in VSOP compared to controls, particularly in networks with many high-PC nodes. This suggests that enhancing brain integration may provide a target for developing effective cognitive training.
