マルチランプ型視覚認知運動課題が認知症高齢者の注意機能に与える影響

The effects of multi-lamp type visuomotor tasks on attentional function of elderly persons with dementia

要旨：ボード上に配列された12個のランプから，点灯中のものを探索して押すマルチランプ型視覚認知運動課題が，認知症高齢者，特に中重度者の認知機能を改善するか否かを評価する目的で，同課題を認知症高齢者14名に対して週1〜2回，全20回実施した．実験はクロスオーバーデザインで，マルチランプ課題実施期と対照課題（カルタ課題）実施期を設定した．開始前とマルチランプ課題後の比較では，中重度者の順唱課題と線分抹消課題が有意に改善し，軽度者でもHDS-R得点の有意な改善が見られた．中重度者に比較的保たれやすい即時記憶や持続性注意はマルチランプ課題のように対象者が遂行可能な課題を継続することで，改善される可能性がある．

　The usefulness of multi-lamp type visuomotor tasks (hereinafter, simply referred to as multi-lamp tasks), which require the subject to find and press a flashing lamp among twelve lamps arranged on a board, in improving the attentional function and other cognitive functions in elderly persons with dementia, particularly those with moderate to severe dementia, was evaluated. The subjects of the study included 14 elderly persons with dementia, who were administered the task a total of 20 times, at the frequency of one or two times per week. The experiment was conducted using a crossover design, and an implementation period was set for the multi-lamp task and the control task (karuta, a Japanese card game). Comparisons between before and after the administration of the multi-lamp task showed significant improvements in the forward repeat task and line cancellation task among the subjects with moderate to severe dementia, and in the HDS-R scores among the subjects with mild dementia, after administration of the multi-lamp task. These findings indicate that continued administration of the multi-lamp task or any other similar task that can be performed by subjects may help improve their immediate memory functions and sustained attentional functions, which are relatively easy to retain even in patients with moderate to severe dementia.