Cognitive training based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy neurofeedback for the elderly with mild cognitive impairment: a preliminary study

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Sehwan Kim¹  Hee Jung Kim²  Jung Jae Lee³  Dohyun Kim³  Un Sun Chung⁴  Ilju Lee⁵ 

[1] Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea;Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea;Department of Psychiatry, Dankook University Hospital, Cheonan, Republic of Korea;Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea;Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea;Department of Psychology, College of Health Science, Dankook University, Cheonan, Republic of Korea;

关键词: functional near-infrared spectroscopy;    neurofeedback;    elderly;    cognitive training;    cognitive impairment;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnagi.2023.1168815

 received in 2023-02-18, accepted in 2023-07-05,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionMild cognitive impairment (MCI) is often described as an intermediate stage of the normal cognitive decline associated with aging and dementia. There is a growing interest in various non-pharmacological interventions for MCI to delay the onset and inhibit the progressive deterioration of daily life functions. Previous studies suggest that cognitive training (CT) contributes to the restoration of working memory and that the brain-computer-interface technique can be applied to elicit a more effective treatment response. However, these techniques have certain limitations. Thus, in this preliminary study, we applied the neurofeedback paradigm during CT to increase the working memory function of patients with MCI.MethodsNear-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to provide neurofeedback by measuring the changes in oxygenated hemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex. Thirteen elderly MCI patients who received CT-neurofeedback sessions four times on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) once a week were recruited as participants.ResultsCompared with pre-intervention, the activity of the targeted brain region increased when the participants first engaged in the training; after 4 weeks of training, oxygen saturation was significantly decreased in the left dlPFC. The participants demonstrated significantly improved working memory compared with pre-intervention and decreased activity significantly correlated with improved cognitive performance.ConclusionOur results suggest that the applications for evaluating brain-computer interfaces can aid in elucidation of the subjective mental workload that may create additional or decreased task workloads due to CT.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Lee, Kim, Kim, Kim, Chung and Lee.