A new mobile app developed in Singapore holds promise to prevent the progression of dementia by helping improve the multilingual thinking of senior folks. 

HOW IT WORKS

A team of app developers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has built what could be the world's first multilingual app for dementia prevention, Ami (an acronym for Advancing Mental Invigoration). 

Its prototype was recently launched at one of the active ageing centres of the social service agency Lions Befrienders.

This intervention tool, which is intended for both cognitively healthy seniors and those showing early signs of dementia, features three touch-screen games in six different languages and dialects. Each game is presented in single or dual-language modes and includes an avatar who delivers instructions, prompts, and assistance to the user throughout the game.

Lions Befrienders is targeting to install Ami in about 1,000 IM-OK tablets by December 2023. 

WHY IT MATTERS

About one in ten people over the age of 60 in Singapore has dementia. Cases are expected to rise as the island city-state inches close to becoming super-aged – meaning senior citizens account for about 21% of the population.

The SUTD team developed Ami to test the scientific hypothesis that bilingualism or multilingualism can positively impact the cognitive abilities of the elderly. Citing a study, Associate Professor Yow Wei Quin, acting head of the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences cluster at SUTD, said cognitive games presented in two languages can significantly improve the cognitive skills and verbal memory of elderly users better compared to those who play monolingual games or none at all. The said study also found that seniors with impaired cognitive thinking showed improvement in their verbal learning skills six months after playing such games.

Two years ago, A/Prof Yow's team started collaborating with St Andrew’s Senior Care and Yong-En Care Centre to test-bed and pilot test Ami. They claimed that the app has delivered remarkable gains in cognitive outcomes, as well as technology perception and acceptance. Caregivers, therapists, and welfare organisations that were also involved in the pilot also found the app to be beneficial to their clients and has the potential to reduce caregivers' burden.

The SUTD team now seeks more funding and investment to introduce the app to the wider population and to commercialise the app eventually. They also aim to leverage AI technologies to expand the app's features and list of games.

THE LARGER TREND

Lions Befrienders also partnered with Opsis Emotion AI to accurately identify mental health issues among senior people using emotional analysis technology.

AI is a widely leveraged tool for diagnosing dementia in fast-ageing populations. Recently, Lotte Healthcare in South Korea announced its tie-up with iMediSync to offer new AI-driven healthcare services. Theoria, a newly established digital health unit of the Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, aims to launch next year its risk prediction algorithm for the early detection of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Also, the MATCH project of University of Melbourne researchers is now looking to integrate an AI-enabled music adaptive system into their existing mobile app which helps regulate the mood of users with dementia. 

ON THE RECORD

"I found the game to be interesting as the gameplay tests how fast my brain works and how quickly my fingers move, testing my flexibility and alertness. It also has multiple language options and I enjoy listening to the dialects as it is not common to hear them outside nowadays," Betty Tan Siew Hua, 72, one of the early users of Ami, was quoted as saying in a statement.

"These games, of course, are helpful to older adults like me. It gives us lots of opportunities to exercise our brains and try our best to think," Chen Lu Fen, 61, one of the app's testers, also shared.

"SUTD created this bilingual app to leverage technology to stimulate confidence and independent play in the elderly. The study also allows us to test a scientific hypothesis on the cognitive advantages of bilingualism, specifically in this case, whether bilingual cognitive training is more effective than the traditional monolingual mode in improving the older adults’ cognitive abilities," explained Ami project head and SUTD A/Prof Yow.

"Ami’s bilingual feature is so user-friendly – even those who can’t read can play. It has also proven to stimulate the brain and improve verbal memory," she also noted.