Brain Plasticity Rehabilitation of Visual Cognition

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Virtually everyone experiences significant decline in cognitive abilities as they age. In vision, these deficits manifest as problems with visual recognition, visual working memory, and visual processing efficiency and speed. Despite the prevalence of these problems in the aged and the severe impact they eventually have on quality of life (e.g., recognition of friends, driving), there is currently no effective treatment for these deficits - they are accepted as a natural part of the aging process. However, an increasing body of research indicates that these cognitive declines are substantially contributed to by the degradation of function in the central visual system. Over the past thirty years, the related fields of experimental psychology, perceptual learning, and "brain plasticity" (the study of the brain's ability to reorganize itself in response to behavioral demands) have defined systematic ways to use behavioral training procedures to improve the function of central sensory systems in the brain. We have previously applied brain plasticity research to create models of a variety of developmental disabilities (autism, language and reading impairments) and adult disabilities (acquired focal dystonias, Parkinsonism, schizophrenia, depression, progressive functional losses in aging). A variety of animal and human studies demonstrate that a brain plasticity based training strategy can be effectively employed to drive large-scale therapeutic benefits for functionally deteriorating, aged individuals. We now propose to use this knowledge and practical experience to create and test a set of intensive computer-based visual training exercises that target visual processing impairments in older adults suffering from age-related cognitive decline. The long term goals of the training exercises are 1) to significantly improve the representational fidelity of the visual system and substantially improve visual sensory performance, visual cognition, and overall quality of life in older adults and 2) to significantly advance the state of the art in the area of visual system plasticity-based approaches for the functional rehabilitation of visually guided behavior. This proposal represents a direct contribution to human health in that it should result in the creation of a training program designed to enhance the cognitive performance of virtually all people as they age.