Training Multisensory Processing in Older Adults

训练老年人的多感官处理

• 批准号: 7090453
• 负责人: Paul Laurienti
• 金额: $ 18.3万
• 依托单位: WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-04-15 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7090453
• 关键词: attention; clinical research; cues; human old age (65+); human subject; neural information processing; psychophysiology; sensory feedback; training

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It has been shown that as humans age all sensory systems exhibit diminished function. Interestingly, many of the disabilities associated with aging that may impact the quality of life, such as increased falls, communication disturbances, and memory impairment, may be impacted by changes in the integration of information from multiple sensory modalities. In fact, distractions from unattended or background stimuli in across sensory modalities are consistently increased in aged individuals. The enhanced response to background stimulation is thought to be related to changes in sensory attention that occur with age. Although more susceptible to distractions within or across sensory modalities, elderly subjects actually show greater behavioral performance enhancements when multisensory stimuli carry redundant information. Thus, many age-related sensory deficits could be ameliorated if elderly subjects were able to limit distractions associated with irrelevant sensory cues but retain the benefits associated with redundant multisensory cues. An intervention that reduces elderly subjects' susceptibility to distractions within and across sensory modalities may improve multisensory integration and could have a great impact on quality of life by improving processes such as communication and memory in addition to limiting susceptibility to falls. The studies proposed here will fill this knowledge gap by evaluating multisensory processing in elderly subjects before and after participation in an attention training program. Our primary hypothesis is that attention training lessens distractions associated with incongruent sensory stimuli while retaining behavioral improvements associated with congruent multisensory stimuli. A significant advantage of utilizing behavioral interventions over pharmacologic interventions is that the risk for adverse side-effects is very low. Thus, studies directed at evaluating the clinical efficacy of multisensory training programs could have considerable impact on health care and the quality of life in the elderly.

描述（由申请人提供）：已经表明，随着人类年龄的增长，所有感觉系统的功能都会减弱。有趣的是，许多与衰老相关的可能影响生活质量的残疾，例如跌倒次数增加、沟通障碍和记忆障碍，可能会受到多种感官信息整合变化的影响。事实上，老年人对各种感官模式中无人看管或背景刺激的干扰持续增加。对背景刺激的增强反应被认为与随着年龄的增长而发生的感官注意力的变化有关。虽然老年受试者更容易受到感官模式内部或跨感官模式的干扰，但当多感官刺激携带冗余信息时，老年受试者实际上表现出更大的行为表现增强。因此，如果老年受试者能够限制与不相关的感官线索相关的干扰，但保留与冗余的多感官线索相关的好处，则许多与年龄相关的感官缺陷可以得到改善。降低老年受试者对感觉模式内部和跨感觉模式的干扰敏感性的干预措施可以改善多感觉整合，并且除了限制跌倒的易感性之外，还可以通过改善沟通和记忆等过程来对生活质量产生重大影响。这里提出的研究将通过评估老年受试者在参加注意力训练计划之前和之后的多感官处理来填补这一知识空白。我们的主要假设是，注意力训练可以减少与不一致的感官刺激相关的干扰，同时保留与一致的多感官刺激相关的行为改善。与药物干预相比，使用行为干预的一个显着优势是不良副作用的风险非常低。因此，旨在评估多感官训练计划临床疗效的研究可能会对老年人的医疗保健和生活质量产生相当大的影响。