A New 360° Dual-task Based Protocol for the Pre-clinical In-hospital and At-home Rehabilitation of Elderly: DUAL-Rehab

A New 360° Dual-task Based Protocol for the Pre-clinical In-hospital and At-home Rehabilitation of Elderly: DUAL-Rehab

The main objective of this project is two-fold

1. to develop a Dual-Task training exploiting the potentiality of the 360° technology in terms of interactivity and ecological validity
2. to investigate its efficacy in improving the cognitive functioning in a randomized clinical trial for 2 different populations: subjects with subjective memory complaints and mild cognitive impairment.

Specifically, participants will follow an integrated training including 2 phases: 1)in-hospital rehabilitation, where subjects will be provided sessions of the training in immersive modality; 2)at-home rehabilitation, where older adults will be asked to perform at home the non-immersive version of the training using a tablet.

Expected outcome is an improvement in cognitive functioning (assessed with a complete neuropsychological battery) after the training, thus advancing literature about non-pharmacological interventions in the preclinical stages of dementia along with innovative technical instruments.

Inclusion Criteria (group of SMC):

• > 65 years old
• self-reported memory complaints
• score on Mini-Mental State Examination greater than or equal to 27/30 (normal range)

Exclusion Criteria:

• no evidence of objective impairments on the neuropsychological testing, scores on the Clinical Dementia Rating < 0.5

Inclusion Criteria (group of MCI):

• > 65 years old
• a self-reported (or reported by a caregiver) cognitive decline
• an objective impairment on the neuropsychological testing
• scores on the Clinical Dementia Rating < 0.5.

Exclusion Criteria:

• no dementia