FA16-Project 1: Week 5

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Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all cases (Alzheimer’s Association , 2016). Alzheimer’s disease patients experience gradual disturbance in several cognitive functions such as language, reasoning, memory, and visuospatial skills. Visuospatial skills refer to our ability to process and interpret visual and spatial information in our environment. These skills enable us complete essential everyday tasks such as reading a map, driving a car, giving directions, recognizing and manipulating shapes and object. Deficits in visuospatial performance could be detected in the very mildest stage of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer patients (Storand, 1995). Visuospatial dysfunction in Alzheimer disease is reflected in perceptual impairments as well as in deficits in higher order aspects of spatial orientation (Alice, 2014).
Previous research have shown that playing action games induces changes in a number of sensory, perceptual, and attentional abilities that are important for many tasks in spatial cognition (Spence, 2009). An experiment conducted in 2011 found that visuospatial training through video games can not only impact performance on measures of spatial functioning, but can also affect performance in content areas in which these abilities are utilized (Sanchez, 2011). In 2014 Erin Connors, Elizabeth Chrastil, Jamie Sánchez, & Merabet Lotfi conducted an experiment investigating whether action games can improve navigation and spatial cognition skills to adolescents who are blind. Based on the results the investigators concluded that a game based learning approach can facilitate the transfer of spatial knowledge and further, can be used by individuals who are blind for the purposes of navigation in real-world environments (Connors, Chrastil, Sánchez, & Merabet, 2014). Previous research has also found that playing an action video game can virtually eliminate the gender difference in spatial attention and simultaneously decrease the gender disparity in mental rotation ability (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007).
Whiles there has been many research conducted exploring whether games can improve visuospatial skills, there has been only a few resent studies that has directly investigated whether games can enhance visuospatial skills in individuals with Alzheimer’s. To explore this topic most of the research conducted use either a realistic approach using close-to-reality simulations, or serious video games (Imbeault, Bouchard, & Bouzouane, 2011). This research however would take a different approach and focus on table games. This study would explore whether table games can improve the visuospatial skills of individuals with Alzheimer’s. The current study aims to test this notion by assessing the visuospatial skill of individuals with Alzheimer’s in an experimental setting. I predict that table game usage can improve the visuospatial skill of men and women with Alzheimer disease. This work is important given the fact that a larger amount of men and women are affected by Alzheimer disease. An improvement of visuospatial skills can essentially improve the everyday aspects of these individuals life.

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About Robert O. Duncan

I'm an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences at City University of New York, with joint appointments in Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroscience. I also have an appointment as a Visiting Scholar at New York University. My research interests include cognitive neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging, glaucoma, neurodegenerative disorders, attention, learning, memory, educational technology, pedagogy, and developing games for education.

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