VISUAL INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE ALZHEIMER COGNITION

描述（改编自研究者摘要）：目视检查的大部分方面 认知和记忆在阿尔茨海默病（AD）中受损，包括 识别和区分物体、面孔、字母和单词的能力， 其他模式。最近的研究表明，基本视力的缺陷是 在这种疾病中普遍存在，视觉缺陷可以强烈预测 视觉认知的障碍，这表明基本的视觉可能是一个合乎逻辑的 非药物干预改善AD患者认知功能。的 研究的具体目的包括实验性地操纵视觉测试， 变量和确定哪些操作最能提高测试性能 有针对性的认知能力，这开始解决的长期目标， 通过开发干预措施提高AD的认知能力 旨在恢复视力缺陷。双中心纵向研究 建议，利用波士顿阿尔茨海默病中心的优势， 克利夫兰影响受试者入组和数据质量。该计划要求 测试了80名健康的老年人，80名健康的年轻人和160名痴呆症患者。 患者，其中50%将被诊断为可能的AD和35%， 血管性痴呆其余部分将包括路易体和额颞叶 痴呆症目标对比敏感度和后掩蔽，视觉能力 作为认知干预的起点， 针对这项研究。第三种能力，运动感知，将是 作为可能的干预点进行更多初步调查的主题。 据推测，刺激对比度，亮度， 持续时间将导致显著改善，甚至正常化， 痴呆症患者在视觉认知的几项测试中的表现， 包括字母和单词的阅读、人脸识别和识别、物体识别和识别 命名和复杂模式完成。对于运动感知， 注意力的方向和对几种类型的运动信号的预先适应 将被研究。这项研究有望产生与确定 动态的认知能力，可能会通过改善， 操纵这些运动感知变量。通过将 视觉，认知和临床缺陷，以创新和有效的 干预，该项目可能会提供新的见解，以改善认知和 因此，正常老年人的生活质量， 患有AD和其他病因的痴呆症。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from investigator's abstract): Most aspects of visual cognition and memory are impaired in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), including the abilities to recognize and discriminate objects, faces, letters and words, and other patterns. Recent research indicates that deficits in basic vision are prevalent in this disorder and that visual deficits can strongly predict impairments in visual cognition, suggesting that basic vision may be a logical non-pharmacological point of intervention for improving cognition in AD. The specific aims of the study include experimentally manipulating vision test variables and determining which manipulations most improve performance on tests of targeted cognitive capacities, which begins to address the long-term goal of enhancing cognitive performance in AD through the development of interventions aimed at restoring deficient visual capacities. A dual-site longitudinal study is proposed, using the strengths of the Alzheimer Centers of Boston and Cleveland to effect participant enrollment and data quality. The plan calls for testing 80 healthy elderly adults, 80 healthy young adults, and 160 demented patients, of whom 50% will be diagnosed with probable AD and 35 percent with Vascular Dementia. The remainder will include Lewy Body and Frontotemporal Dementias. Target contrast sensitivity and backward masking, visual capacities that show the most promise as launching points for cognitive intervention, are targeted in this research. A third capacity, motion perception, will be the subject of more preliminary investigation as a possible point of intervention. It is hypothesized that manipulations of stimulus contrast, luminance, and duration will result in significant improvement or even normalization of performance of demented patients on several tests of visual cognition, including letter and word reading, face discrimination and recognition, object naming, and complex pattern completion. For motion perception, the role of the direction of attention and prior adaptation to several types of motion signals will be studied. This research promises to yield data relevant to determining the dynamic cognitive capacities that might be amenable to improvement through manipulation of these motion perception variables. By bridging the findings of visual, cognitive, and clinical deficits to innovative and effective intervention, the project may provide new insights to improving cognition and hence the quality of life of normal elderly adults and especially individuals with AD and dementia of other etiologies.