The Effect of Deep Micro Vibrotactile Stimulation on Cognitive Function of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Dementia

Ayuto Kodama, Yasuhiro Suzuki, Kazuki Sakuraba, Yu Kume and Hidetaka Ota
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Ayuto Kodama: Advanced Research Center for Geriatric and Gerontology, Akita University, Akita 010-8543, Japan
Yasuhiro Suzuki: Department of Complex Systems Science, Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
Kazuki Sakuraba: Home-Visit Nursing Station Gotenmari, Yurihonjo 018-1301, Japan
Yu Kume: Department of Occupational Therapy, Graduate school of Medicine, Akita University, Akita 010-8543, Japan
Hidetaka Ota: Advanced Research Center for Geriatric and Gerontology, Akita University, Akita 010-8543, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-10

Abstract: Background: The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of Deep Micro Vibrotactile (DMV) stimulation on the cognitive functions in elderly people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. Methods: A total of 35 participants with dementia from three nursing homes, who had completed treatment with DMV stimulation at 15–40 Hz (hereinafter, 15–40 Hz DMV stimulation) for a month were recruited for this study. The subjects had received continuous 15–40 Hz DMV stimulation for 24 h a day for 1 month. We assessed the effect of the treatment on the cognitive functions (by the word list memory (WM) test, trail making test-part A (TMT-A) and part B (TMT-B), and symbol digit substitution task (SDST)) and physical functions (grip strength (GS) and usual walking speed (UWS)), by comparing the results at the baseline and after the 1-month intervention (DMV stimulation). Results: The results revealed that the performances in the WM test ( p < 0.05), TMT-B ( p < 0.05), and SDST ( p < 0.01) improved significantly after the intervention. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that 15–40 Hz DMV stimulation is might be effective for improving the cognitive functions in elderly people with dementia. Furthermore, our novel findings showed the different effectiveness of the treatment depending on the stage of cognitive impairments.

Keywords: deep micro vibrotactile; elderly; cognitive function; dementia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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