Training and Rehabilitation Involving Physical Activity and Cognitive Exercises

Abstract

System, methods and electronic devices aimed at motivating users to perform physical activity are disclosed herein. A user may be presented with a series of physical and cognitive exercises. For example, an exercise may be locked until completion of an unlocked exercise. Performance in each exercise may be tracked to display feedback to a user and track the user's improvement over time. Physical exercises may comprise challenges to move a particular distance or take a particular number of steps. Cognitive exercises comprise techniques test or train the cognitive abilities of the user in: attention, memory, processing speed, logical reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, language, and cognitive executive functions. Performance in one exercise may modify the difficulty or parameters of a subsequent exercise. The tracking of user improvement may comprise a progress or reward system such as the increasing of a user's “level” or awarding of “badges.”

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62 / 349,311, filed Jun. 13, 2016, and entitled “TRAINING AND REHABILITATION INVOLVING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND COGNITIVE EXERCISES,” the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety and made part hereof.FIELD[0002]Aspects of the invention relate to computerized training, rehabilitation programs, and more specifically, to mobile device applications aimed to increase the fitness level and / or cognitive abilities of participants.BACKGROUND[0003]It is well-known that many people in the Western world do not perform sufficient physical activity during their daily work or leisure time, and that this leads to a multitude of chronic health conditions like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Despite this knowledge, it is notoriously difficult for individuals to change their lifestyle and avoid the negative long-term consequences to their...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]Systems, methods, and electronic devices aimed at motivating users to perform physical activity are disclosed herein. These entail combining physical activity with cognitive exercises in specific ways, which may lead to increased user self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, and therefore, may ultimately lead to increased levels of physical activity.

[0012]Initially, compounding physical activity with cognitive exercises may appear motivationally detrimental, as it may be increasing the difficulty of the tasks for the user rather than providing encouragement and rewarding the user for performing physical activity. However, the combined physical activity / cognitive exercise may actually be linked to psychological benefits that greatly outweigh the disadvantage of the increased effort required from users. In a comparative field test evaluating a conventional implementation of a program that rewarded users for performing physical activity exercises versus an essentially identical program that incorporated cognitive exercises on top of physical activity exercises, the group that performed additional cognitive exercises displayed far fewer dropout rates, and much higher increases in physical activity (e.g., measured in daily number of steps).

[0015]The integration of physical and cognitive exercises may be crucial for the purpose of transferring psychologically motivating factors from one component of the integrated behavior to another. Specifically, the two components of the behavior, namely physical activity and cognitive exercises, may be associated with different feedback cycles: physical activity may include long feedback loops of weeks, or even months, before a progress becomes visible and the benefits associated with increased levels of physical fitness are perceived. In contrast, improvements in cognitive exercises may be much faster, such that improvements in performing cognitive tasks may be evident within days, or even hours. The short feedback loops of cognitive exercises may be linked with faster feelings of achievement, a boost in confidence, and an increase in self-efficacy. In order for this increase in self-efficacy to extend to the physical activity component of the behavior as well, the two component behaviors may need to be closely entangled in the training program.

[0024]In addition to the motivating effects on physical activity, aspects of the present invention may also increase the efficacy of cognitive exercises, as increased levels of physical activity may improve people's brain plasticity, and therefore, cognitive performance. Physical activity may lower dementia risk, cause the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which may stimulate the growth of new neurons, and may cause the release of irisin, a hormone linked to improved cognitive function.

[0025]Aspects of the present invention may describe a program that combines physical activity with cognitive exercises in a synergistic manner, such that users may be motivated to engage more often and for longer periods of time in physical exercises, thereby increasing their fitness levels. Conversely, the synergistic effects of increased physical activity may benefit the cognitive function and augment the efficacy of the performed cognitive exercises. For example, the same dose of cognitive exercises, linked with the physical activity component, may cause a greater beneficial effect on cognition compared to a situation when the cognitive exercises had been performed in an isolated manner, without the linked physical activity component.

Problems solved by technology

In the context of physical activity, the performance increase of a sedentary user that is starting a physical activity program may be quite slow, and the relative comparison to the average physical activity levels of others might not be favorable at the beginning.

Thus, lack of “immediate gratification” in perceiving progress, or even discouragement in the face of slow progress and poor comparative performance, may be major hurdles in improving self-efficacy.

Due to the lack of self-efficacy, users may be less motivated to improve their fitness with current physical activity programs, apps and associated wearables.

Initially, compounding physical activity with cognitive exercises may appear motivationally detrimental, as it may be increasing the difficulty of the tasks for the user rather than providing encouragement and rewarding the user for performing physical activity.

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