Healthy older observers show equivalent perceptual-cognitive training benefits to young adults for multiple object tracking

To evaluate the impact of the nutritional impact of dietary intake of whole eggs, egg white, and egg yolk on visual cognitive performance (NeuroTracker) in healthy older adults.

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99 healthy men and women aged 50 to 75 years were randomly assigned to one of five groups with different daily consumption of eggs alongside a record of their usual dietary intake. Over 1-month period participants either consumed four egg whites, two whole regular eggs, two whole omega-3-fortified eggs, four egg yolks, or no eggs (control). During the final 2 weeks of the study all participants completed 15 NeuroTracker.

On average male participants performed significantly better at NeuroTracker than females. All participants on egg-based diets performed significantly better across 2-weeks of NeuroTracker training than the no-egg controls. Findings suggest that whole eggs, egg whites and egg yolks are beneficial for visual cognitive performance in healthy older adults.

To investigate if the decline in biological motion perception associated with healthy aging can be reversed with a short NeuroTracker training intervention.

13 participants completed 3-hours of NeuroTracker training over 5-weeks, and 28 control participants did either experimental training or no training (overall mean age of 67 years old). Pre-post assessments of biological motion perception was assessed with a VR walker (point like display) at 4m and 16m.

Pre-NeuroTracker training participants displayed significantly lower performance for interpreting human movement at 4m, compared to 16m. Controls showed no change post-training, whereas the NeuroTracker trained group's performance at 4m rose to the level of their performance at 16m. As biological motion perception abilities are deemed to be important for social skills, as well as critical for collision avoidance at 4m, the researchers concluded that the results demonstrate NeuroTracker to be a useful form of generic training for helping older people deal with socially relevant dynamic scenes.

Several studies have shown that aerobic exercise can slow age-related cognitive decline, and in some cases, improve cognitive function in the older population. The purpose of this study was to investigate for the first time, the effects of resistance training on cognitive function, as measured by changes in NeuroTracker measures.

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25 older adults with a mean age of 70yrs were split into a trained group (6 weeks of resistance exercises), and an untrained group. Perceptual-cognitive ability was measured pre and post training using NeuroTracker baselines.

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The older adults who performed six weeks of resistance training experienced significant improvements in perceptual-cognitive function as measured by NeuroTracker. Resistance training may therefore be an effective means to slow age related cognitive decline.

3D vision (binocular stereo) develops during childhood and tends to reduce after 65 years of age. This study aimed to investigate whether these effects are significant when processing complex and dynamic motion.

Three groups of 20 subjects were recruited: children (7–12 years old), adults (18–40 years old) and older adults (≥65 years old). Each person completed 4 NeuroTracker sessions, 2 in 2D (no binocular stereo) and 2 in 3D (with binocular stereo).

As typical, adults achieved significantly higher NeuroTracker scores than children or elderly. They also gained a significantly larger advantage when performing NeuroTracker in 3D. In turn, children showed more advantage with 3D than elderly. This suggests that older populations have reduced ability to process complex and dynamic motion using stereoscopic processing. This study reveals that comparison between scores with and without stereoscopic effect, allows direct evaluation of the stereopsis advantage when performing NeuroTracker.

To test the theory that driving performance is strongly associated with dynamic processing of multiple objects, by evaluating if NeuroTracker measures correlate with older driving performance in simulated scenarios.

30 experienced drivers with ages ranging from 65-85 years old were tested on one session of NeuroTracker (3D-MOT), and completed up to 3 driving scenarios on the STISIM 3.0 driving simulator. 5 unexpected events were included in the scenarios to test crash risk. The correlations between NeuroTracker speed thresholds and simulator measures (crash rate, lane deviation) were then calculated.

Highly significant correlations were found between NeuroTracker thresholds and both crash rate and lane deviation in the highway driving scenarios. Lower NeuroTracker scores were strongly associated with lane deviation during highway merging, and higher NeuroTracker scores related to participants being less likely to crash across different scenarios, and to have better overall lane maintenance skills. This study adds plausibility to the idea that a multiple object tracking test such as NeuroTracker could be a candidate for inclusion in an assessment battery for older drivers.

To investigate if a NeuroTracker intervention could improve cognitive abilities in older adults with subjective cognitive decline, and determine if AI models could be used to increase training efficacy.

48 participants between 60 and 90 years of age with subjective cognitive complaints, but otherwise healthy, were assigned to NeuroTracker training group (26) or a control group (22). All participants provided detailed socio-demographic information via questionnaires and baseline neuropsychological assessments (California Verbal Learning Test, Digit Span, D-KEFS Trail Making Test, D-KEFS Verbal Fluency Test, and Stroop Test). The NeuroTracker group performed 7 weeks of training, the control group only performed NeuroTracker baseline assessments. Both groups performed follow-up neuropsychological assessments at 8 weeks and 11 weeks. Machine Learning models were used to analyze demographic and assessment data to test if cognitive performance and responsiveness to training could be predicted.

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The NeuroTracker group experience a large improvement in scores of around 70%, along with wide and robust performance transfer on the neuropsychological assessments at week 8, with further gains (without training) at week 11. AI models yielded highly accurate predictions of responsiveness to the training intervention. The researchers propose that such models can be used to effectively tailor NeuroTracker programs to the needs of individuals.