As discussed in my short video, memory training for dementia is a strategy we all need to engage as we age whether our current age is 20 or 80!

Information about the Parkinsons Recovery Mindwork challenges is here:
https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/mindfulness/

Below is an abstract from a study that examined the usefulness of memory training for 76 individuals currently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease:

Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2020 Mar;72:13-22. doi: 10.1016. Effects of working memory training in patients with Parkinson’s disease without cognitive impairment: A randomized controlled trial. Anja Ophey , Kathrin Giehl , Sarah Rehberg , Carsten Eggers , Paul Reker , Thilo van Eimeren , Elke Kalbe 

Objective: To determine the feasibility and evaluate effects of a computerized working memory (WM) training (WMT) in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) on cognitive and clinical outcomes.

Methods: 76 patients with PD without cognitive impairment were randomized to either the WMT group (n = 37), who participated in a 5-week adaptive WMT, or a passive waiting-list control group (CG, n = 39). Patients underwent clinical and neuropsychological examination at baseline, after training, and at 3-months follow-up, with verbal WM and non-verbal WM as primary outcomes. Outcome assessors were blinded for group allocation.

Results: All WMT participants completed the training successfully and reported high levels of motivation for and satisfaction with the training. Repeated-measures, linear mixed-effects models revealed positive training effects for the WMT group compared to the CG in verbal working memory with a small relative effect size 0.39 [95%CI 0.05; 0.76] for the 3-months follow-up only. No other reliable training effects in cognitive and clinical variables were found for either point of time.

Conclusions: In this randomized controlled trial, memory training for dementia is feasible and yielded some evidence for 3-months follow-up training gains in patients with Parkinsons disease. WMT might be an effective intervention to prevent cognitive decline in this patient group.

Robert Rodgers PhD
Founder 2004
Parkinsons Recovery® 
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease