Meetings

Most people donning virtual reality (VR) goggles are seeking the thrill of being immersed in a fictitious video game world. But some are donning them for an entirely different experience: to help researchers identify those most at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. As will be presented today at the annual conference of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) in Boston, Mass., cognitive neuroscientists are increasingly turning to VR technology to develop innovative ways to assess cognitive decline. They are finding significant age-related and disease-related differences in how individuals can navigate and locate objects within a VR space, in some cases linking cognitive impairments to build up of Alzheimer’s proteins in the brain.

A memory is not a straight line from one point to another, even if we sometimes think of them like linear stories. This key insight that cognitive neuroscientists have known for many years is now guiding a new type of research—to explore not only how memories evolve over time but also how they can be strengthened or changed. Assisting researchers with this new exploration is a powerful tool: smartphones. At the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) in Boston, scientists will be presenting new data from smartphone studies about a range of actions people take can help them build stronger and more detailed memories.

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