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，以积极影响老年人的认知、大脑功能和幸福感。由我们的研究团队进行的两项先前资助的NIA研究证明了一种新颖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，内容是专业演员用来塑造栩栩如生的人物的技术，并在回忆、散文理解/记忆、单词生成和解决问题的能力方面取得了进展。在第一项研究中，参与者是社区居住的老年人。对照非治疗对照组和替代治疗对照组的改善情况进行衡量(艺术欣赏)。第二项研究将研究结果扩展到风险要高得多的人群：成年人比他们大了将近十年，受教育程度较低，他们不再住在自己的家里，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计划。再一次，相对于不接受治疗的对照组和替代干预(音乐表演)，这些好处被证明是正确的。在提议的当前项目中，我们将通过不仅调查改善认知的行为测量，而且通过检查由磁共振成像和功能磁共振成像索引的行动指导导致的大脑功能和结构的变化来大大扩展这项研究。我们还将扩展我们对感知和认知方面的检查，包括受行为干预影响的实验室测试和日常认知测试。我们还将包括控制条件，使我们能够辨别重要的机制，这些机制是我们对认知和大脑进行干预的好处的基础。最后，我们将检验认知和幸福感的变化是否会随着时间的推移而持续下去。

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.