A Lego Robot Programming Intervention for Enhancing Older Adult Cognitive Health

The population in Taiwan is rapidly aging with an increasing proportion of older persons who experience cognitive difficulties but are otherwise physically healthy. As such there is a critical and urgent need for effective interventions to enhance older adult cognitive health. This present sub-project is part of the larger integrated project that will address this need by conducting cognitive training interventions on community older adults using the National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) as the public engagement window and collecting research behavioral and neurophysiological data to empirically and objectively examine intervention efficacies. In this sub-project, the investigators implement a clinical trial to evaluate an open-ended, flexible cognitive training intervention in middle to older adults aged 50 yrs or above using a 12-week Lego Robot Programming (Lego RP) protocol developed in the investigators' lab at the Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University. The Lego RP training requires participants to generate and update abstract mental hypotheses of the effect of program codes on the physical actions of a robot based on how the robot behaves. Such mental processing is thought to drive flexible coordination between neural processes in the brain and benefit a broad range of cognitive abilities in older adults. The investigators target to obtain pre- and post-intervention behavioral and neurophysiological data (including brain imaging indicators) in 40 experimental participants, 40 active control participants, and 40 passive control participants over a period of 3 years. The investigators will also coordinate with the other sub-projects to assign participants to the different interventions involved as well as research data collection, which is shared. In contrast to previous studies of older adult cognitive training, the investigators expect this present approach, which leverages neurocognitive principles, to result in notable transfer between different cognitive abilities, and meaningful impact on daily functioning. The NTSEC recently seeks to engage the public, particularly children and older adults in STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) to inspire and equip the population with the spirit of learning, discovery, and challenge-seeking, which is thought to raise mental resilience. Thus, the investigators' public outreach and research goals are highly complementary and the work is expected to yield more ecologically valid research data on a novel class of cognitive interventions for cognitive aging using psychological and brain imaging techniques to bridge critical neural mechanistic knowledge gaps. In addition, the research study will apply real public education benefits in society for those approximately 300 older participants who will participate in this study.