'BINGO'
game helps researchers study perception
deficits
January 5,
2012--Bingo, a popular activity in nursing
homes, senior centers and assisted-living
facilities, has benefits that extend well
beyond socializing.
Researchers found high-contrast, large bingo
cards boost thinking and playing skills for
people with cognitive difficulties and
visual perception problems produced by
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s
disease (PD).
“The general finding of improved performance
across healthy and afflicted groups suggests
the value of visual support as an
easy-to-apply intervention to enhance
cognitive performance,” researchers from
Case Western Reserve University, Boston
University and Bridgewater State University
wrote.
The findings were reported in the article,
“Bingo! Externally supported performance
intervention for deficit visual search in
normal aging, Parkinson’s disease, and
Alzheimer’s disease,” in the journal Aging,
Neuropsychology, and Cognition.
As people age, they begin to lose
sensitivity to perceive contrasts. It is
exacerbated in people with dementia,
according to Grover C. Gilmore, a
psychologist and dean of the Mandel School
of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western
Reserve University.
Bingo is often used in nursing homes and
senior centers as a social activity, and
being socially engaged helps keep the mind
healthy.
But little is known about how visual
perception problems—common in aging
players—affect the way these people think
and play, said Gilmore, who has done
extensive testing in his Perception Lab at
Case Western Reserve.
Researchers tested cards of different sizes,
contrasts and visual complexities to find
out how visual perception problems impact
cognitive functions among the study’s
participants: 19 younger adults, 14
individuals with probable AD, 13 AD-matched
healthy adults, 17 non-demented individuals
with Parkinson’s disease and 20 PD-matched
healthy adults.
When study participants played bingo on
computer-generated cards that were
manipulated for brightness, size and
contrast, the researchers could compare the
performance among the different age and
health groups.
With some contrast and size changes to the
card, researchers reported improvement in
performances. For those with mild dementia,
they could perform at levels of their
healthy peers. Little change was reported
for people with more severe dementia.
Gilmore and the study’s lead investigator,
Alice Cronin-Golomb from Boston University,
have collaborated for two decades on
projects that look at visual sensory
deficits and cognition among people with
dementia. For PD individuals, driving is
affected by low contrasts as demonstrated in
simulated fog situations.
They have found that boosting contrast in
the living environment and also at the table
enables people with dementia—who have lost
the ability to distinguish between
similar-contrast objects—to move safely
around their homes and improve their eating.
For example, putting a black sofa in a white
room would improve the contrast of the room
and make it easier for individuals to move
about. Additionally, they found that
individuals with dementia actually eat more
if they use a white plate and tableware on a
dark tablecloth or are served food that
contrasts the color of the plate.
Boosting contrast is among interventions
known as Externally Supported Performance
Interventions (ESPI). The researchers say
these interventions allow people with
dementia and others with visual perception
deficits to live independently longer,
perform daily tasks and enjoy life and
having such pleasures as reading a book.
Other contributors to the study are: Boston
University researchers Thomas M. Laudate,
Sandy Neargarder (also from Bridgewater),
Tracy E. Dunne, Karen D. Sullivan and
Pallavi Joshi and Case Western Reserve
University researcher Tatiana M. Riedel.
