Programs for Cognitive Neurosciences
Cognitive rehabilitation has been shown to be effective in treating a variety of neurological disorders including traumatic brain injury and stroke. Until recently, there has been little research investigating the utility of this therapeutic modality with mildly impaired Alzheimer's patients because of the assumption that any gains would be offset by the progressive deterioration often associated with the degenerative disease process. Data suggest that techniques such as spaced retrieval and other techniques that rely on procedural knowledge and implicit memory, motor learning, and the provision of cognitive support at both encoding and retrieval of information, can be beneficial to mildly impaired Alzheimer's patients.
The Center for Cognitive Neurosciences will offer an integrated approach in the treatment of those with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia among individuals who are receiving an effective pharmacological agent. Such agents have been shown to slow the cognitive progression of Alzheimer's disease to the point that they may enhance the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation interventions when introduced early in the course of the illness. The potential synergistic effects of combined cognitive rehabilitation with pharmacological agents in Alzheimer's is exciting, given the promise of newer and more effective pharmacological agents for this condition in the future. This has important implications for optimizing and maintaining the patents's cognitive and functional independence for the longest period of time. In addition to the direct benefit to Alzheimer's patients, the proposed cognitive rehabilitation intervention also is expected to reduce the caregiver's perceived burden and psychological distress.
As a crucial aspect of the program, the Neuropsychology of Aging Laboratory, directed by David Loewenstein, Ph.D., ABPP/CN, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine, studies and evaluates neuropsychology functions. In addition, Dr. Loewenstein has developed strategies of cognitive rehabilitant and currently has two federal research grants funded by NIH/NIA. These research projects involve the development of new cognitive instruments that are sensitive to the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. The predictive utility of these instruments and genetic markers are being studied as predictors of cognitive decline in those individual diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The other project involves the implementation of new cognitive rehabilitation interventions among patients with mild Alzheimer's on cholinesterase inhibitors. Other work involves nueropsychological correlates of quantitative MRI, functional assessment in Alzheimer's patients and MCI, as well as cross-cultural neuropsychological assessment.
