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Introduction to The Neurosciences and Music V: Cognitive Stimulation and Rehabilitation
Author(s) -
Bigand Emmanuel,
Tillmann Barbara
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/nyas.12732
Subject(s) - disclaimer , content (measure theory) , psychology , rehabilitation , cognition , stimulation , cognitive science , neuroscience , political science , mathematical analysis , mathematics , law
Cognitive stimulation is a fascinating scientific topic that taps into a crucial aspect of the human brain: its neural and functional plasticity. Understanding the cognitive and neural mechanisms that govern this plasticity is a key issue for both human life and basic science, and has tremendous implications for society in relation to technology, education, and health care. The concept of cognitive stimulation builds upon an important corpus of research that demonstrates that the human brain manifests neural plasticity throughout life and that neural plasticity still occurs in individuals affected by, for example, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, or stroke. These discoveries have led to the development of intervention technology designed to enhance and/or maintain cognitive and motor functioning. In healthy individuals, cognitive stimulation may improve cognitive and motor functions for specific purposes, such as, for example, fostering abilities in workers or enhancing attention in young and old drivers. Stimulating cognition can even be a key issue for risky professions, such as pilots or security personnel. Cognitive stimulation also contributes to reducing the effects of aging in seniors and facilitates scholastic success in children with cognitive deficiencies, including those with sensory impairments. It is even likely that greater plasticity in childhood may result in better resilience to aging (the reserve capacity hypothesis). In neurological patients, cognitive stimulation provides nonpharmacological approaches for recovering brain and motor functions after brain damage, disease, or delayed mental development. It opens new perspectives for therapeutic interventions designed to improve the well-being of patients suffering from various diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and stroke. The possibility of including powerful engineering technologies and computational sciences in cognitive training programs will raise the effectiveness and accessibility of these programs. The success of current industrial developments suggests that the economic impact of cognitive technology is likely to be very significant in the near future. The social impact of cognitive stimulation has been notably shown during the last five years by the number and variety of products related to cognitive training that have been commercialized by new industries for brain, mind, and body fitness. Numerous books have been published on topics like “strengthening your brain”; numerous Web sites are promising improvements of cognitive, affective, and social intelligence thanks to “brain fitness programs”; and a number of commercial computer programs claim that they can “boost your brain.” In sum, cognitive stimulation opens promising avenues to address some important educational and health challenges of the modern, and aging, society. For all these reasons, cognitive stimulation will unquestionably have considerable economic impact: it could optimize the performance of healthy people in everyday life (including working environments), and it may reduce the cost of medical assistance to elderly and brain-damaged patients by improving the autonomy and well-being of patients. Accordingly, an important challenge for the cognitive sciences and neurosciences will be to understand how human beings take advantage of neural plasticity.