Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

One of the most important questions in medical research is how to repair an aging or injured nervous system. Eventually, there may be pharmacologic and biological approaches that will help to restore individuals' normal functioning. Today, however, commercialized products are currently being designed for individuals wanting to understand and address their cognitive concerns (i.e., intellectual ability). This equipment has begun to enter main stream society, stressing the importance of "brain fitness". This topic is of great interest, particularly to the rapidly aging population in Canada. The aim of this research is to examine the validity of engaging individuals (particularly individuals with Alzheimer's disease) in cognitive training, including brain fitness procedures. The relative benefits of these measures have received minimal "official" examination to date. This project is designed to explore this line of research and examine more implicitly the relative benefit of cognitive training and whether such training may enhance blood flow to the brain. More specifically, this project will focus on developing a program/set of procedures that directly uses visuospatial/ visuomotor training to produce positive overall cognitive change and blood flow to the brain within these indentified populations.