Design a Game to Help Alzheimer's Patients

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease and dementia affect millions of people around the globe. Can you design a "brain training" game that can help people keep their brains healthy as they age, and maybe one day help treat or even prevent diseases like Alzheimer's? Try this coding science project to find out!

Summary

Areas of Science

Video & Computer Games
Human Biology & Health

Difficulty

Method

Engineering Design Process

Time Required

Long (2-4 weeks)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Very Low (under $20)

Safety

No issues

Credits

Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies

Science Buddies is committed to creating content authored by scientists and educators. Learn more about our process and how we use AI.

Objective

Design a "brain training" game for people with Alzheimer's or dementia.

Introduction

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alzheimer's disease is "a progressive disease beginning with mild memory loss and possibly leading to the loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to the environment." As the disease worsens, it can seriously affect a person's ability to care for themselves and accomplish everyday tasks like cooking, cleaning, or shopping. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia. Dementia is not a specific disease, but "a general term for the impaired ability to remember, think or make decisions that interferes with doing everyday activities" (CDC). Alzheimer's disease and dementia are not a normal part of aging, but involve more severe loss of memory and abilities. According to the CDC, "normally, knowledge and experience built over years, old memories, and language would stay intact."

While there is currently no cure, and scientists have not found a single "cause" for Alzheimer's disease, they have identified a variety of potential risk factors. Healthy behaviors that benefit your body, like exercising, maintaining a healthy diet, and avoiding tobacco and alcohol use may also benefit your brain as you age and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Some research also suggests that activities that exercise your brain, like playing games or doing puzzles, can be beneficial to brain health as you age, possibly improving, or at least slowing the decline of, things like memory and focus.

In this science project, you will focus on one of these potential treatments: designing a "brain training" video game. Many different brain training games are available. They can challenge things like your ability to match objects, remember patterns, associate words, do simple math problems, or simulate daily tasks. These games can have an interface customized for their target audience. For example, a game designed for adults with Alzheimer's might be much simpler and easier to learn than a game that kids play for fun. Sometimes researchers call these types of games serious games, as opposed to games designed primarily for entertainment.

This is a very cutting-edge, active area of research, so while you can use the CDC resources in the bibliography as a starting point, you will need to do some current research about detection, prevention, and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and cognitive decline. You will also need to do research about different types of "brain training" games and maybe even try playing some of them yourself. Then, you will be ready to design your own game!

We recommend that you design your video game with a programing language called Scratch (Figure 1). Scratch is a beginner-friendly "graphical" programming language that lets you write a program by clicking and dragging colored blocks of code. If you have never programmed with Scratch, you can follow the tutorials in the Bibliography to get started.

Image Credit: Ben Finio, Science Buddies / Science Buddies
Figure 1. A screenshot of the Scratch programming environment in a web browser. Users select from a list of colored programming blocks (left) to build their program (center). Users can program games or animations that appear on the "stage" (top right).

Terms and Concepts

• Alzheimer's disease
• Dementia
• Cognitive decline
• Serious games

Questions

• What are the differences between Alzheimer's disease and dementia?
• What are the differences between normal brain aging and Alzheimer's disease?
• What are some potential risk factors for Alzheimer's disease?
• What potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease are researchers currently investigating?

Materials and Equipment

• Computer or tablet with an internet connection. See the Scratch FAQ for system requirements.
• Volunteers with Alzheimer's disease or dementia
• Lab notebook

This project follows the Engineering Design Process. Confirm with your teacher if this is acceptable for your project, and review the steps before you begin.

Working with Human Test Subjects

There are special considerations when designing an experiment involving human subjects. Fairs affiliated with Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) often require an Informed Consent Form (permission sheet) for every participant who is questioned. Consult the rules and regulations of the science fair that you are entering, prior to performing experiments or surveys. Please refer to the Science Buddies documents Projects Involving Human Subjects and Scientific Review Committee for additional important requirements. If you are working with minors, you must get advance permission from the children's parents or guardians (and teachers if you are performing the test while they are in school) to make sure that it is all right for the children to participate in the science fair project. Here are suggested guidelines for obtaining permission for working with minors:

1. Write a clear description of your science fair project, what you are studying, and what you hope to learn. Include how the child will be tested. Include a paragraph where you get a parent's or guardian's and/or teacher's signature.
2. Print out as many copies as you need for each child you will be surveying.
3. Pass out the permission sheet to the children or to the teachers of the children to give to the parents. You must have permission for all the children in order to be able to use them as test subjects.

1. Do background research about current state of the art for treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Remember that this is a rapidly changing field of study, so you will need to look up recent scientific studies and news articles.
2. Do research about different types of "brain training" and "serious" games. Note that there may be differences between games developed by companies and games developed by researchers. Investigate the claims made by the people who make the games and what evidence they have that the games work. If possible, try out some of the games yourself. This may require signing up for a free trial of certain commercial games.
3. If possible, conduct some preliminary research and interviews with your study volunteers and their caretakers. What types of daily tasks do they struggle with? What mental skills are related to these tasks? What do they think could help improve their ability to accomplish these tasks?
4. After doing background research, you might be tempted to dive right into programming a game with Scratch, but remember that you are following the engineering design process. You should brainstorm and come up with multiple possible ideas for a game before you start programming one. You can sketch out designs for a game on paper before you do anything in Scratch. Here are some things to consider for your game. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is intended to help you get started.
   1. What is the main objective of the game?
   2. What mental skill is the game intended to train or improve?
   3. What action(s) will the user take in the game?
   4. How will the user control or interact with the game?
   5. Are the controls simple enough for someone to learn if they do not play a lot of video games?
   6. How does the user score points or advance through the game?
   7. Can the user "beat" the game? Will it have different difficulty levels or get harder as the user progresses?
5. Once you have selected a game design, program a prototype of the game in Scratch. Remember that there are many tutorials about making Scratch games available from the links in the Bibliography.
6. It will be helpful to test the code in sections and try playing the game yourself as you program it, instead of waiting until the entire game is done to test it. For example, you might want to test the code that controls movement of a single sprite before you add code for other sprites or scoring.
7. Once you have a working prototype of the game, conduct some field testing with your users and their caretakers. Ask them to try the game, observe them while they play it, and ask them some questions about it. Here are a few ideas:
   1. Can the users easily learn the controls for the game?
   2. Do the users understand the purpose of the game?
   3. Do the users have fun and want to keep playing the game? Do they get bored or frustrated and want to stop?
   4. Is the game too easy? Can the users easily beat the game or max out the score without much effort?
   5. Is the game too hard? Do the users have difficulty scoring any points at all or advancing to the next level?
   6. Are there any "bugs" or unexpected crashes in the game? Do the users do anything you did not anticipate?
8. Based on your observations in step 7, you may need to make changes to your code. The engineering design process is iterative. It is OK if your game is not perfect on the first try! You may need to go through more than one design iteration before you arrive at your final game.
9. Once you have finalized the design for your game, you can conduct a longer-term study. For example, you can ask the volunteers to play the game once a day for a few weeks, or three times a week for a few months, etc., and track their performance in the game over time. Do your volunteers get better at playing the game? Does this seem to relate to improved cognitive performance? See the Variations section for some additional ideas about testing your game's impact on brain health.

Ask an Expert

Do you have specific questions about your science project? Our team of volunteer scientists can help. Our Experts won't do the work for you, but they will make suggestions, offer guidance, and help you troubleshoot.

Post a Question

Global Goals

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

This project explores topics key to Good Health and Well-Being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Variations

Careers

If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:

Neurologist

Log in to add favorite More Menu

• Read More

Career Profile

Each time your heart beats, or you breathe, think, dream, smell, see, move, laugh, read, remember, write, or feel something, you are using your nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves that make electrical connections all over your body. Neurologists are the medical doctors who diagnose and treat problems with the nervous system. They work to restore health to an essential system in the body. Read more

Computer Software Engineer

Log in to add favorite More Menu

• Read More

Career Profile

Are you interested in developing cool video game software for computers? Would you like to learn how to make software run faster and more reliably on different kinds of computers and operating systems? Do you like to apply your computer science skills to solve problems? If so, then you might be interested in the career of a computer software engineer. Read more

Physician

Log in to add favorite More Menu

• Read More

Career Profile

Physicians work to ease physical and mental suffering due to injury and disease. They diagnose medical conditions and then prescribe or administer appropriate treatments. Physicians also seek to prevent medical problems in their patients by advising preventative care. Ultimately, physicians try to help people live and feel better at every age. Read more

Health Educator

Log in to add favorite More Menu

• Read More

Career Profile

Have you ever heard the expression "Prevention is the best medicine"? Prevention is the fundamental work of all health educators. They attempt to prevent illnesses or diseases in individuals or entire communities through education about nutrition, exercise, or other habits and behaviors. Health educators present scientific information in ways that their audience can relate to, and are sensitive to cultural differences. They are the cornerstone of the public health system, improving health and… Read more

News Feed on This Topic

 

, ,

Explore Our Science Videos

Colorful Melting Ice Ball Patterns - STEM Activity

Why Soda Fizzes – Boyle’s Law Demonstration | STEM Activity

Raspberry Pi 3B+ Setup (Science Buddies Kit)