Acting Out: Influence of an Acting Intervention on Cognition and Brain Function

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是开发易于实施的多模式干预措施，这些干预措施可以积极影响老年人的认知，大脑功能和健康。我们的研究小组进行了两项先前资助的NIA研究，证明了一种新的短期干预对老年人的认知益处。这些研究包括为期四周的课程，学习专业演员创造栩栩如生的角色的技巧，结果是在回忆、散文理解/记忆、单词生成和解决问题的能力方面取得了进步。在第一项研究中，参与者是居住在社区的老年人。对无治疗组和替代治疗组（艺术欣赏）的改善进行了测量。第二项研究将研究结果扩展到风险更高的人群：年龄比自己大整整10岁、受教育程度较低、不再住在自己家里、而是住在收入较低的持续护理机构，这些机构很少能够提供专门的精神刺激项目。再一次，对照无治疗对照和替代干预（音乐表演）证明了这些益处。在目前提出的项目中，我们将大量扩展这项研究，不仅通过调查改善认知的行为措施，还通过检查由动作指导导致的大脑功能和结构的变化，如磁共振成像和功能磁共振成像所示。我们还将通过实验室测试和日常认知测试来扩展我们对感知和认知方面的检查，这些测试都受到行为干预的影响。我们还将包括控制条件，这将使我们能够辨别出重要的机制，这些机制是我们干预认知和大脑的好处的基础。最后，我们将研究认知和幸福感的变化是否归因于行为干预持续一段时间。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objective of this project is to develop easily implemented multimodal interventions that can positively influence cognition, brain function, and well being of older adults. Two previously funded NIA studies conducted by our research team demonstrated the cognitive benefits of a novel, short-term intervention for older adults. Those studies consisted of four-week courses in the techniques used by professional actors to create lifelike characters, and resulted in gains on measures of recall, prose comprehension/memory, word generation, and problem-solving ability. In the first study, the participants were community-dwelling seniors. Improvements were measured against both no-treatment controls and alternative-treatment controls (art appreciation). The second study extended the findings to a far more at-risk population: adults who were almost a full decade older, less well educated, and who no longer lived in their own homes but in low income, continuing care facilities that were rarely able to offer specialized programs of mental stimulation. Once again, the benefits were demonstrated against no-treatment controls and an alternate intervention (musical performance). In the proposed present project we will substantially extend this research by investigating not just behavioral measures of improved cognition but also by examining changes in brain function and structure which result from acting instruction, as indexed by magnetic resonance imaging and functional magnetic resonance imaging. We will also extend our examination of the aspects of perception and cognition, with both laboratory tests and tests of everyday cognition, that are influenced by the acting intervention. We will also include control conditions that will enable us to discern the important mechanisms which underlie the benefits of our intervention on cognition and brain. Finally, we will examine whether changes in cognition and well- being attributed to the acting intervention persist over time.