Cogny

Hello,

We are a team of 4 students driven by the goal of making the world a better place. Our members are:

• André Rodrigues - MSc student in Computer Science & Engineering at FCT/UNL
• Emma Rodrigues - PhD student in Cognitive Neuroscience at SIAT/SFU
• Pedro Agostinho - MSc student in Computer Science & Engineering at FCT/UNL
• Pedro Almeida - MSc student in Computer Science & Engineering at FCT/UNL

We are pleased to introduce to you our solution: Cogny

Background:

The older adult population is increasing drastically in the developed countries. Projections show that by the year 2050, the number of older adults aged 60 and over will rise to nearly 2.1 billion. In Portugal, the rate by which the population is ageing is particularly high. In 1950, the number of older adults aged 65 and over accounted for 7% of the population in Portugal. Today, this proportion is over 23%. With this growth, the need of more solutions to address their needs, increases as well.

Several researchers have focused on trying to identify different approaches to improve and delay the aging process. It’s been found that one of the most effective prevention mechanisms against the neurodegenerative effects of aging lies in maintaining or enhancing the brain’s cognitive-reserve capacity.

An individual’s cognitive reserve capacity is reflected in their individual cognitive trajectories.

The Problem(s):

One of the most effective prevention mechanisms against the neurodegenerative effects of aging lies in maintaining or enhancing the brain’s cognitive-reserve capacity. An individual’s cognitive reserve capacity is reflected in their individual cognitive trajectories.  The problem we’re faced with is that there is no current way for either the older adult or their caregiver to track and improve cognitive health in a personalized and universally accessible manner. The consequences of this can be several: 

1. Missing the optimal window for change. Deficient cognitive trajectories can be associated with an increased risk in a large number of debilitating conditions, including neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Not understanding the state and trajectory of a person’s cognitive health can lead to a loss of opportunity for change. [1]
2. Few repetitions in administration of assessments. Repeated administration of cognitive tests is necessary to characterize change over time, and lack of repetitiveness leads to potential neglection changes into pathology. [2]
3. Mixed messaging from experts and clinicians. Many studies have resulted in confusing results, small sized effects, and lack of reproducibility as to how best to improve cognition. This scientific confusion carries a negative impact on our society by creating mixed messaging from experts and clinicians to their patients and families. [3]
4. Lack of general understanding of the aging process. There is substantial heterogeneity within the aging population and their cognitive trajectories, with some persons experiencing little change and others experiencing complex nonlinear variability, making it difficult to uniformly model change. [2]
5. The negative impact of COVID-19. Adverse conditions, such as those many are currently living due to the COVID-19 pandemic, contribute to a faster decline in cognitive health and restrict the population in terms of available resources that could potentially be used to fight these decays.

Our Solution:

Cogny - The virtual friend that will help you keep track of your brain changes and will help you remain the best you possible.

Our goal is to identify a persons individual trajectory and present adapted cognitive games. Cogny not only provides the necessary stimulation to maintain the older adults cognitive functions essential to independent and happy living, but also the needed entertainment that captivates the older adult and makes them keep wanting to check up on their Cogny.

Cogny is a virtual companion designed to track cognitive trajectories over time and address the changes in a personalized manner. It is a user-friendly mobile application that gradually adapts to the capabilities of the users in a stimulating and entertaining way, while also informing the caregiver with a qualitative perspective. The interface of this mobile application was designed with the needs of senior citizens in mind, as well as the degree of comfort most people within this population have with technologies such as smartphones and tablets. To achieve this, we developed a simple yet engaging and appealing interface, using gamification to both captivate the attention of the user, and to generate interest in repetitive usage.

• In the app, the older adult can create an account and identify the current health conditions that they’re experiencing, that may or may not contribute to faster declines.
• After the first uses, Cogny is able to adapt the difficulty level of the games to the user, so that no ceiling of flooring effects are observed.
• Through additional use, as the older adult engages in the cognitive games, reaction times and accuracy value are measured and compiled into the stats window.
• If specific functions appear to be declining rather than maintained or promoted, Cogny will insist on games that promote those cognitive abilities.
• The games that are present in the app are specific to the Portuguese population, and for that reason Cogny was designed in Portuguese, with symbols and figures that are meaningful to this cohort.

Impact:

Using Cogny to learn and predict an individual’s cognitive trajectory has benefits at the individual and global levels: 

Individual

1. Comprehensive understanding of cognitive changes over time;
2. Individual meaningful response to observable changes in cognitive health;
3. Limit and Delay cognitive declines associated with ageing;
4. Contribution to build up of cognitive-reserve capacity;

Global

1. Lead to fundamental changes in the way we treat and manage different health concerns;
2. Change the way we understand the aging population;
3. Create novel pathways to establish health policies for seniors
4.  app usage.

References:

[1] Buckley, R., & Pascual‐Leone, A. (2020). Age‐related cognitive decline is indicative of neuropathology. Annals of Neurology, 87(6), 813-815.

[2] Wilson, R. S., Wang, T., Yu, L., Bennett, D. A., & Boyle, P. A. (2020). Normative cognitive decline in old age. Annals of Neurology, 87(6), 816-829.

[3] Christie, G. J., Hamilton, T., Manor, B. D., Farb, N. A., Farzan, F., Sixsmith, A., ... & Moreno, S. (2017). Do lifestyle activities protect against cognitive decline in aging? A review. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 9, 381.

APK cognitive games download: https://github.com/Andrerod98/Cogny/raw/master/app-release.apk

Github cognitive games: https://github.com/Andrerod98/Cogny

Figma application prototype: https://www.figma.com/proto/BrtG3FFrIAAq3a3c08qCED/Untitled?node-id=28%3A38&scaling=scale-down

Initial Video Submission: https://youtu.be/rAY7Jf7jYR0