Abstract
Managing memory deficits is a central problem among older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study examined the effects of memory training on memory performance in an understudied “oldest-old” population ranging in age from 90 to 99 years. Eighteen mild to moderately cognitive-impaired older seniors, 90 years and older were recruited from memory clinics established in senior living communities. Treatment sessions took place, on average, twice weekly, for 55 minutes. Memory intervention included nineteen computer-based exercises customized to focus on memory loss. The specificity of memory training was very clear; memory training produced significant effects (F(3,51) = 2.81, p = 0.05) on memory performance, especially after 6 months of training, while other outcome measures showed no effects as predicted. Based on the results, it can be concluded that interventions targeting cognition and memory in the oldest-old MCI population can significantly improve memory function and reduce cognitive deficits.
Highlights
There seems to be an agreement that cognitive intervention with older adults is effective in maintaining and even improving cognitive performance and behavior [1]-[7]
The current results support prior work showing the specificity of memory training on cognitive performance
The improvement in memory and no other cognitive function is important because it demonstrates that the memory intervention used here may be a valuable tool to manage memory deficits
Summary
There seems to be an agreement that cognitive intervention with older adults is effective in maintaining and even improving cognitive performance and behavior [1]-[7]. This work is impressive because a minimal intervention improves performance on tasks far removed from the memory intervention [8]-[12] Even with such robust findings it is not clear what the attributes of the intervention that produce changes are or how specific the change is. Increasing cognition in a given domain, such as memory, is difficult, as a given intervention may unpredictably produce gains in other unrelated domains without gains in the targeted domain
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