EM-COGLOAD: An investigation into age and cognitive load detection using eye tracking and deep learning.

Alzheimer's Disease is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease, and is a leading cause of disability among the elderly. Eye movement behaviour demonstrates potential as a non-invasive biomarker for Alzheimer's Disease, with changes detectable at an early stage after initial onset. This paper introduces a new publicly available dataset: EM-COGLOAD (available at https://osf.io/zjtdq/, DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/ZJTDQ). A dual-task paradigm was used to create effects of declined cognitive performance in 75 healthy adults as they carried out visual tracking tasks. Their eye movement was recorded, and time series classification of the extracted eye movement traces was explored using a range of deep learning techniques. The results of this showed that convolutional neural networks were able to achieve an accuracy of 87.5% when distinguishing between eye movement under low and high cognitive load, and 76% when distinguishing between the oldest and youngest age groups.

Neurocognitive function following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: The primary aim of this review was to investigate neurocognitive outcomes following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Specifically, the focus was on identifying the different neurocognitive domains that are assessed, the measures used, and the level of, and criteria for, impairment. DESIGN AND REVIEW METHODS: A systematic review of the literature from 2006 to 2021 was completed using Medline, Cinahl and Psychinfo. Criteria for inclusion were studies with participants over the age of 18, OHCA and at least one neurocognitive function measure. Qualitative and case studies were excluded. Reviewers assessed criteria and risk of bias using a modified version of Downs and Black. RESULTS: Forty-three studies were identified. Most studies had a low risk of bias (n = 31) or moderate risk of bias (n = 11) and one had a high risk; however, only six reported effect sizes or power analyses. Multiple measures of neurocognitive outcomes were used (>50) and level of impairment criteria varied considerably. Memory impairments were frequently found and were also more likely to be impaired followed by executive function and processing speed. DISCUSSION: This review highlights the heterogeneity of measures and approaches used to assess neurocognitive outcomes following OHCA as well as the need to improve risk of bias concerning generalizability. Improved understanding of the approaches used for assessment and the subsequent findings will facilitate a standardized evaluation of neurocognitive outcomes following OHCA.

Designing Ethical Social Robots-A Longitudinal Field Study With Older Adults.

Emotional deception and emotional attachment are regarded as ethical concerns in human-robot interaction. Considering these concerns is essential, particularly as little is known about longitudinal effects of interactions with social robots. We ran a longitudinal user study with older adults in two retirement villages, where people interacted with a robot in a didactic setting for eight sessions over a period of 4 weeks. The robot would show either non-emotive or emotive behavior during these interactions in order to investigate emotional deception. Questionnaires were given to investigate participants' acceptance of the robot, perception of the social interactions with the robot and attachment to the robot. Results show that the robot's behavior did not seem to influence participants' acceptance of the robot, perception of the interaction or attachment to the robot. Time did not appear to influence participants' level of attachment to the robot, which ranged from low to medium. The perceived ease of using the robot significantly increased over time. These findings indicate that a robot showing emotions-and perhaps resulting in users being deceived-in a didactic setting may not by default negatively influence participants' acceptance and perception of the robot, and that older adults may not become distressed if the robot would break or be taken away from them, as attachment to the robot in this didactic setting was not high. However, more research is required as there may be other factors influencing these ethical concerns, and support through other measurements than questionnaires is required to be able to draw conclusions regarding these concerns.

Working memory and sequence learning in the Hebb Digits task: awareness is predicted by individual differences in operation span.

We examined the extent to which individual differences contribute to performance in a task considered to index implicit learning, the Hebb Digits task. Although Hebb Digits learning is considered to be equivalent for those with implicit and explicit knowledge of the repeating digit pattern, this study found that participants who developed explicit knowledge showed learning, whereas those without explicit knowledge did not. Additionally, participants who developed explicit knowledge outperformed participants without explicit knowledge on working memory measures, specifically the Automated Operation Span Task total correct score and absolute score. However, no significant differences were found between those who did and who did not develop explicit knowledge on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Task-Revised, which uses delayed recall to index long-term memory. These results suggest that learning and awareness in the Hebb Digits task relies on individual differences in working memory capacity.

Identifying at-risk older adult community-dwelling drivers through neuropsychological evaluation.

This study examined the predictive validity of widely utilized neuropsychological tests, the Cognitive Behavioral Driving Inventory (CBDI) and the Useful Field of View (UFOV), to predict driving abilities in a community-dwelling older adult population. Thirty-nine older adults were given the test battery and an on-the-road driving test. Results indicated that while performance on both the CBDI and UFOV was significantly predictive of driving performance, neuropsychological tests of executive function, memory, and visual perception were more predictive of on-the-road driving ability. These results suggest that standard neuropsychological assessment may be able to identify mild cognitive impairment as it relates to at-risk driving in a community-dwelling older adult population.

Performance of healthy, older adults on the Tower of London Revised: Associations with verbal and nonverbal abilities.

Neuropsychological studies suggest a subclinical impairment in executive function that occurs with normal aging. This is the first study to examine the performance of healthy older adults on the Tower of London-Revised (TOL-R), as well as the relationship between TOL-R performance and verbal and nonverbal abilities. Performance of 63 older adult participants on the TOL-R and two WAIS-III subtests was compared to that of 35 young adult college students. Group comparisons indicated age differences in TOL-R performance; however, these were eliminated after adjusting for individual differences in Matrix Reasoning performance. In the older adult groups, multiple regression analyses demonstrated that Matrix Reasoning performance was a stronger predictor of TOL-R performance than was chronological age or years of education. These results suggest that performance on the TOL-R is a psychometrically sound executive function measure for older adults and that individual differences in fluid intelligence are more predictive of performance than chronological age.

Age differences in fluid intelligence: contributions of general slowing and frontal decline.

The current study examined the contributions of general slowing and frontal decline to age differences in fluid intelligence. Participants aged 20-89 years completed Block Design, Matrix Reasoning, simple reaction time, choice reaction time, Wisconsin Card Sorting, and Tower of London tasks. Age-related declines in fluid intelligence, speed of processing, and frontal function were observed. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the processing speed and frontal function measures accounted for significant variance in fluid intelligence performance, but there was also a residual effect of age after controlling for each variable individually as well as both variables. An additional analysis showed that the variance in fluid intelligence that was attributable to processing speed was not fully shared with the variance attributable to frontal function. These findings suggest that the age-related decline in fluid intelligence is due to general slowing and frontal decline, as well as other unidentified factors.

Working memory, inhibition, and fluid intelligence as predictors of performance on Tower of Hanoi and London tasks.

The contributions of working memory, inhibition, and fluid intelligence to performance on the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) and Tower of London (TOL) were examined in 85 undergraduate participants. All three factors accounted for significant variance on the TOH, but only fluid intelligence accounted for significant variance on the TOL. When the contribution of fluid intelligence was accounted for, working memory and inhibition continued to account for significant variance on the TOH. These findings support argument that fluid intelligence contributes to executive functioning, but also show that the executive processes elicited by tasks vary according to task structure.