Curriculum
Neuroscience, Technology, and Society, XXXIII series
Grant sponsor
CARIPARO
Supervisor

Franca Stablum
Co-supervisor
Ombretta Gaggi

Project description
Successfully assisting older adults in maintaining or improving their cognitive functioning and resisting the negative consequences of the aging process, remains a challenge. Among all of the interventions believed to positively influence human cognition, in recent years there have been a growing scientific interest in the computerized training programs. Repetitive practice of different aspects of cognition is thought to stimulate neuroplasticity, and thus increase cognitive and brain reserve (Ballesteros et al., 2015; Fernández-Ballesteros et al., 2012). In spite of a great number of evidence suggesting the efficacy of cognitive training programs in the area of a trained domain, its impact on a general cognition and everyday functioning is still questionable (Tetlow & Edwards, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this project is to verify if a computerized training program can provide a general cognitive improvement in healthy older adults and to investigate its effects on their daily lives. As attention is being considered to be one of the fundamental blocks of cognition and it is involved in a proper and effective functioning of other mental processes (Mayas et al., 2014; Sohlberg et al., 2000), attentionally oriented tasks have been chosen as a training activity. It is believed that even relatively small changes in individual’s attention abilities may strongly influence learning efficiency (Kinsella et all., 1997), thus we hope to observe not only an improvement in the area of a trained domain, but also a transfer of gains to untrained cognitive processes and measures of everyday function.