Brain M-App’s Structure and Usability: A New Application for Cognitive Rehabilitation at Home

Abstract

Cognitive frailty is defined as a clinical condition characterized by both physical frailty and cognitive impairment, without reaching the criteria for dementia. The major goal of rehabilitation intervention is to assist patients in performing ordinary personal duties without the assistance of another person, or at the very least to remove the need for additional support, using adaptive approaches and facilities. In this regard, home-based rehabilitation allows patients to continue an intervention begun in a hospital setting while also ensuring support and assistance when access to healthcare systems is limited, such as during the present pandemic situation. We thus present Brain m-App, a tablet-based application designed for home-based cognitive rehabilitation of frail subjects, addressing spatial memory, attention, and executive functions. This app exploits the potential of 360° videos which are well-suited to home-based rehabilitation. The Brain m-app is made up of 10 days of activities that include a variety of exercises. The activities were chosen based on those patients used to do during their clinical practice in the hospital with the aim to improve their independence and autonomy in daily tasks. The preliminary usability test, which was conducted on five older people, revealed a sufficient level of usability, however, the sample size was modest. Results from the clinical study with 10 patients, revealed that Brain m-App improved especially executive functions and memory performances.

Enhancing spatial navigation skills in mild cognitive impairment patients: a usability study of a new version of ANTaging software

“…Our results were confirmed by recent studies on the usability of a tablet-based application designed for home-based cognitive rehabilitation which revealed a sufficient level of usability ( Pedroli et al, 2022 ).…”

Mapping the landscape: A bibliometric analysis of information and communication technology adoption by older adults with cognitive frailty or impairment

“…focused on a tablet‐based application designed for home‐based CR in CF individuals. The findings showed that it was both usable and well‐accepted among this population 84 . Nevertheless, the study had a relatively small sample size, and additional research, particularly feasibility and intervention studies, is required to provide more robust evidence and assess potential clinical advantages, including the reduction of CF 84 .…”

“…The findings showed that it was both usable and wellaccepted among this population. 84 Nevertheless, the study had a relatively small sample size, and additional research, particularly feasibility and intervention studies, is required to provide more robust evidence and assess potential clinical advantages, including the reduction of CF. 84 Long-term research is also needed to observe the impact of ICT use among CF individuals.…”

Systematic review of memory assessment in virtual reality: evaluating convergent and divergent validity with traditional neuropsychological measures

“…Many studies have provided evidence of notable correlations between performance on VR tasks and traditional neuropsychological assessments that measure the same cognitive functions ( Matheis et al, 2007 ; Armstrong et al, 2013 ; Lalonde et al, 2013 ; Nolin et al, 2016 ; Pedroli et al, 2020 , 2022 ). This evidence confirmed that VR protocols effectively demonstrated construct validity.…”