Dementia

The World Health Organisation reported that about 47 million people worldwide are living with dementia in 2015 and this number would be projected to triple by 2050^[1]. There is no guaranteed curing method for dementia and the World Dementia Council concludes that regular activity, management of cardiovascular risk factors(diabetes, obesity, smoking, and hypertension), a healthy diet and lifelong learning/cognitive training help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and therefore delay the deterioration of dementia^[2].
For our group’s robot, we try to use the daily task reminder to help the PwD live a regular life and train their cognition through the daily task to slow the progression of dementia.

Music

Accumulating research shows that PwD’s ability to enjoy music and respond to music is potentially preserved even in the late or severe stages of dementia even when verbal communication may have ceased^[3]. Based on this idea, instead of using the voice reminder directly, our robot aims to use personalized music as a reminder. Also, the research shows that explicit memory for music is as vulnerable as verbal or other types of nonmusical memory for PwD, while the implicit memory stays robust. We design our robot based on this idea, the personalised music is based on the PwD’s implicit knowledge for example they may choose a piece of more peaceful music as a reminder to sleep. 

Reference

[1] Prince, M., Guerchet, M., & Prina, M. (2015). The Epidemiology and Impact of Dementia-Current State and Future Trends. WHO Thematic Briefing.
[2] Baumgart, M., Snyder, H. M., Carrillo, M. C., Fazio, S., Kim, H., & Johns, H. (2015). Summary of the evidence on modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia: a population-based perspective. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 11(6), 718-726.
[3] Baird, A., & Samson, S. (2015). Music and dementia. Progress in brain research, 217, 207-235.