Photo/Illutration This brain-training app, seen here at the Aichi prefectural office in Nagoya on Sept. 4, requires users to adjust their finger pressure to operate a character on the screen. (Yoshinobu Matsunaga)

NAGOYA--A team of researchers has developed a brain-training system for the early detection of, and recovery from, a state of physical and mental frailty, which is a predictor of dementia.

The powers of attention and memory were found to have improved in elderly people who used the device utilizing finger pressure on a trial basis.

The researchers from institutions including Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) and Aichi Sangyo University are conducting further demonstrative studies in hopes their creation will assist in dementia prevention.

Frailty, which comes in three categories of physical, psychological and social, refers to a state of declined health due to various factors.

Once dementia has set in, no established medical method is currently available to stop its progression. It is believed, however, that there are good chances of recovery from a stage of frailty.

Yoshifumi Morita, an NITech professor of electrical and mechanical engineering, and other members of the research team focused on the close connection between the brain and the tips of the fingers, which some call the “second brain.”

They thought that learning how to move the fingers deftly could stimulate the brain and thereby help with recovery from frailty.

Morita and his coworkers have been studying, since 2009, devices that can help with rehabilitation from stroke and recovery from autism.

They have drawn on their know-how to develop a new, cylindrically shaped appliance that is as soft as a sponge cake.

The device is designed to be held by players of an app game, in which they adjust their finger pressure to operate a character on the screen so it will eat stars. The game is designed to train and improve hand dexterity, which is clearly linked with brain functions.

The researchers tested the system on 14 healthy and elderly residents from Tokai, Aichi Prefecture, who were asked to use the system for 10 or so minutes a day over a period of 30 days.

All subjects showed improvements in the powers of attention and memory, which had weakened because of aging, the scholars said.

“We hope to have our system used by people with psychological frailty to find out if it will help them recover from that state,” Morita said.

The researchers also said they are enlisting the help of a hospital that specializes in rehab and a medical center that is supporting children with developmental problems.

In cooperation with the medical institutions, the researchers will continue to conduct demonstrative studies in the hopes their method will help restore functions in patients with a broad range of brain-related symptoms.

Morita and his coworkers also plan to set up a university startup, with roots in NITech, by the end of this fiscal year so their project will get on track in commercial terms as well.

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