Improvement in Motor Skills, Attention, and Working Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Using COSMA Cognitive App

Abstract

There are a rapid growth of adults with cognitive impairments and an increasing need for cognitive stimulation and rehabilitation to delay cognitive deterioration. COSMA, a cognitive gaming app, was developed to assist cognitive stimulation in people with cognitive decline and dementia. Therefore, the study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of COSMA in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study involved a treatment group who played COSMA at home and during laboratory visits for 28 days and a control group who played only during laboratory visits. Each group was measured on days 1–14–28, where recordings of playing COSMA and Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) tests were taken. The results showed that the MCI treatment group improved sensorimotor skills in 14 days, sustained attention, spatial planning, working and visual memory, and learning in 28 days. The AD treatment group improved in sustained attention in 14 and 28 days and showed a lower cognitive decline in working memory compared to the AD control group in 28 days. Both control groups did not show any level of improvement. Even though the progression of the MCI was faster than that of the early AD, the study showed inspired results of cognitive improvement in both groups. COSMA showed evidence that cognitive stimulation and rehabilitation are possible in MCI and AD and that it is an effective and efficient non-pharmacological therapeutic tool in these groups of patients.