Improving Cognition through Dance in Older Filipinos with MCI
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The project aims to provide scientific evidence on a public health intervention that is contextualized in a community setting to reduce dementia risk among older adults with MCI. This is a cluster-randomized, two-arm, single-blind trial of a multicomponent intervention that combines dance called INDAK (Improving Neurocognition through Dance and Kinesthetics), nutrition counseling, and vascular risk management. The intervention group received 12-16 months of dance sessions and vascular management while the control group (CON) received only the vascular management. The primary outcome is cognitive performance assessed by several behavioral tasks. Secondary outcomes are functional connectivity assessed through brain imaging, and measures of behavioral, functional level, and quality of life. This model can be an ecological, low-cost, and effective program, thereby conducive to widespread implementation in the Philippines as well as in other low-resource settings with similar public health challenges. This project is a collaboration with St. Luke’s Medical Center, Institute for Neurosciences, Quezon City, Philippines.
Ongoing Project:
Lin Hsin-Yu
Research Associate & Lab Manager
Chiao-Yi Wu
Lecturer
Lead for SoL in Emerging Skills
Chiao-Yi is a cognitive neuroscientist and currently an academic faculty at the National Institute of Education. She loves learning languages and is enthusiastic about how human brains learn language and reading.
Annabel Chen
Professor of Psychology
Lab Director
Dr. SH Annabel Chen is a clinical neuropsychologist, and currently a Faculty member of Psychology at the School of Social Sciences.
