Development and testing of a new cognitive technological tool for episodic memory: A feasibility study

Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy refers to any systemic therapy specifically designed to enhance cognitive performance. Recent studies have shown that physical exercise is beneficial for cognitive activity in patients with degenerative diseases. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to provide training for cognitive functions that take advantage of the physical activity in the execution of the task. A feasibility study concerning the application of a new bioengineering technique in cognitive rehabilitation is presented and it divided into two parts. The first one aims at developing a new cognitive tool, called SmartTapestry (ST), for motor and cognitive rehabilitation. The second part aims at understanding its technical viability and its level of sensitivity in measuring the same cognitive domains covered by the standardized tests. The hypothesis of this study is that, despite the introduction of this new variable, the proposed system has the same sensitivity of the traditional tests. The results suggest a good correlation between the two approaches and that SmartTapestry can train the same cognitive functions of traditional cognitive tasks.