Adaptive Framework for Long-Term Sensory Home Training: A Feasibility Study

Training programs, based on principles of brain-plasticity and skill learning, are useful in counteracting functional decline in pathological conditions. Training effects of such procedures are well described but their adaptive features are usually not reported. A software framework designed for a long-term home training program is presented. It gradually trains users, provides a multidimensional range of stimulus differentiation, encompasses a strategy to increase the task demand and includes motivational reinforcement components. The structured framework was tested in a feasibility study involving two perceptual discrimination tasks (visual and auditory) in four persons in middle-to-older adulthood who were trained for 30 days. Practicability of the training was shown in a home setting by high adherence to the procedure, adaptive increase in task demand over time and positive learning effects on an individual level. Participants learned to distinguish progressively smaller target objects in the visual task (with diminished contrast) and sweeps progressively varying less in frequency in the auditory task (with overlapping noise). This adaptive procedure can provide the basis for the design of extended training programs engaging sensory function in individuals with impaired sensorimotor and cognitive functions. Further investigations are necessary to assess the generalization of learning effects and clinical validity.