Benjamin Boller

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières · Département de Psychologie

In this proof-of-concept study, we assessed the potential for immersive virtual reality (VR) to measure transfer following strategic memory training, and whether efficacy and transfer are increased when training is complemented by practice in an immersive virtual environment. Forty older adults with subjective memory complaints were trained with th...

La réalité virtuelle, en facilitant la création d'environne-ments simulés proche de la vie quotidienne, a rendu possible l'évaluation et l'entraînement des capacités cognitives en situation écologique. Les études chez les patients atteints d'une maladie neurodégénératives ou à risque montrent généralement une amélioration des performances cognitive...

We used data from the Comprehensive cohort of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging to compare the cognitive performance of retirees and workers (n = 1442), 45–85 years of age at baseline. Speed processing and executive functioning were assessed using standardized assessment tools at baseline and at follow-up, measured 3 years later. Retirees an...

Background: Improved health care for people with Down syndrome (DS) has resulted in an increase in their life expectancy therefore increasing comorbidities associated with age-related problems in this population, the most frequent being Alzheimer's disease (AD). To date, several cognitive tests have been developed to evaluate cognitive changes rel...

La prise de retraite est une étape majeure de la vie dont les conséquences pourraient mener à un déclin cognitif associé. Les études épidémiologiques ont montré que le passage à la retraite était corrélé à une baisse du fonctionnement cognitif l’année suivant la prise de retraite, indépendamment de l’effet de l’âge. Néanmoins, ces résultats traduis...

La maladie d'Alzheimer (MA) est très fréquente chez les personnes avec un syndrome de Down (DS), mais en raison de la gravité de la déficience intellectuelle, du vieillissement cognitif prématuré et d'autres comorbidités pouvant affecter la cognition dans cette population, la période prodromique est difficile à évaluer. Cependant, il existe une var...

During the pandemic, older adults were perceived as a vulnerable group without considering their various strengths. This study explored the associations between character strengths and resilience, and verified if some of these could predict resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 92 participants (women = 79.1%), ≥ 70 years of age (mean...

The presence of a perceptual bias due to anxiety is well demonstrated in cognitive and sensory task for the visual and auditory modality. Event-related potentials, by their specific measurement of neural processes, have strongly contributed to this evidence. There is still no consensus as to whether such a bias exists in the chemical senses; chemos...

The presence of a perceptual bias due to anxiety is well demonstrated in cognitive and sensory task for the visual and auditory modality. Event-related potentials, by their specific measurement of neural processes, have strongly contributed to this evidence. There is still no consensus as to whether such a bias exists in the chemical senses; chemos...

Introduction: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is a frequent consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI), even after a mild TBI. We recently found that OD could predict affective symptoms such as anxiety and depression in a population with mild TBI. This study aims to investigate the relationship between OD and cognition after a mild TBI. Methods: A tot...

Hippocampal and entorhinal atrophies are used as gold‐standard biomarkers of the prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These atrophies are related to episodic memory deficits found in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Olfactory deficits have been identified as clinical biomarkers of AD and found in individuals with MCI. Olfac...

Multidomain interventions have shown tremendous potential for improving cognition in older adults. It is unclear if multidomain interventions can be delivered remotely and whether remote intervention is beneficial for older adults who are vulnerable or at risk of cognitive decline. In a 26-week multi-site, home-based, double-blind, randomized contr...

The presence of a perceptual bias due to anxiety is well demonstrated in cognitive and sensory task for the visual and auditory modality. Event-related potentials, by their specific measurement of neural processes, have strongly contributed to this evidence. There is still no consensus as to whether such a bias exists in the chemical senses; chemos...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess the effect of cognitive training on brain activation as a function of the learning phase and level of education. Forty older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) received six one-hour memory training sessions with the method of loci. Brain imaging (N= 29) was measured during...

Aging is a complex process characterized by physical, psychological, and social changes. The interactions between these different aspects are naturally explained by embodied and situated approaches to cognition that offer a global, integrated, and unified understanding of aging. They propose a dynamic cognition emerging from the interaction of sens...

Objective: This longitudinal study aimed to evaluate olfactory perception in patients with first time mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) 2-4 weeks (baseline) and 6 months (follow-up) following their trauma. Methods: At baseline, we enrolled 107 participants (54 healthy controls; 53 patients with mTBI). Thirty-nine healthy controls and 32 patient...

Plutôt que le cerveau, le cœur était considéré dans l'Égypte ancienne comme le siège de l'intelligence, de la mémoire et des émotions. Et si cette croyance ancestrale n’était pas qu’une simple intuition, mais plutôt une hypothèse sérieuse appuyée par les dernières avancées en neurosciences ? De plus en plus de données indiquent que le fonctionnemen...

De nombreuses représentations négatives du vieillissement subsistent dans les sociétés occidentales, elles engendrent des répercussions également négatives sur les comportements et la santé des individus vieillissants. Toutefois, les études portant sur ces représentations portent peu attention à l’étape cruciale du passage à la retraite, pourtant s...

The goal of this study was to identify the brain mechanisms underlying cognitive reserve using a parametric n-back working memory (WM) task in a sample of healthy older adults. We first identified the WM-related activations associated with years of education and then tested whether these activations mitigated the detrimental impact of age on cognit...

Since increasing life expectancy leads to a longer period of retirement, several studies have been investigating the possible impact of retirement on cognitive health. Several epidemiological studies with cross-sectional designs have reported a negative association between retirement and cognitive capacities. However, very few studies with longitud...

Improved health care for people with Down syndrome (DS) has resulted in an increase in their life expectancy therefore increasing comorbidities associated with age related problems in this population, the most frequent being Alzheimer's disease (AD). The development of brain lesions appears years before AD. Through this progressive neuronal loss, p...

Olfactory decline is an early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and is a predictor of conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD. Olfactory decline could reflect AD-related atrophy of structures related to the sense of smell. The aim of this study was to verify whether the presence of a clinical diagnosis of AD or MCI is associated wit...

Introduction: Olfactory dysfunction (OD) is a wellestablished consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Most of the studies reported OD in patients with moderate and severe TBI in the acute phase. However, inconsistent results have been found on OD in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). This study aims to investigate olfactory perc...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with olfactory deficits. The cerebral atrophy of structures related to olfaction has been found to lead to olfactory deficits in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Interestingly, research has shown that conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD is better predicted with the addition of an olfactory identific...

Episodic memory deficit is a symptom frequently observed after a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). However, few studies have investigated the impact of a single and acute mTBI on episodic memory and structural cerebral changes. To do so, we conducted two experiments. In the first, we evaluated verbal episodic memory by using a word recall test, i...

Background: Recently, subjective cognitive decline (SCD) has been considered to be one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since this potential early marker is sensitive but not specific to AD, combining it with other markers could ensure higher accuracy when predicting which persons with SCD will convert to AD. Since olfactory dysfunct...

Background A lesser known early symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is the olfactory decline. The ability to identify an odour may even be a predictor of conversion from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to AD. This sensory decline could reflect AD‐related brain damage, including cerebral atrophy of structures related to the sense of smell. Method The ai...

Alzheimer’s disease is characterised by a slow progression and by an extensive prodromal phase during which symptoms are dormant or very mild. The term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been used to refer to older adults who do not meet the criteria for dementia but who present cognitive complaints and whose cognitive abilities do not fall within...

Background: In older adults, multidomain training that includes physical and cognitive activities has been associated with improvement of physical and cognitive health. The goal of the multisite StayFitLonger study is to assess a home-based computerised training programme, which combines physical exercises, stimulating cognitive activities and vir...

Objective: The concepts of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive decline (SCD) have been proposed to identify individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), or other neurodegenerative diseases. One approach to validate these concepts is to investigate the relationship between pathological brain markers and cognitio...

Introduction : Le continuum cognitif lié à la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) est décrit comme allant de l'absence de symptômes à l'expression d'une plainte subjective, jusqu’à une altération objective, tout cela parallèlement à une accumulation de marqueurs neuropathologiques. Les concepts de trouble cognitif léger (TCL) et de déclin cognitif subjectif (...

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) experience cognitive difficulties and many find themselves in a transitional stage between aging and dementia, making this population a suitable target for cognitive intervention. In MCI, not all cognitive functions are impaired and preserved functions can thus be recruited to compensate for the impa...

The concept of Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) has been proposed to tackle the prodromal phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and to identify individuals who are in the very early stages of the disease. Persons with SCD complain about their memory but do not show impairment on classical neuropsychological measures. Though they have a larger risk of...

Numerous studies have shown that cognitive training can improve cognition in healthy older adults and in persons with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. However, whether those effects transfer beyond the trained task remains a critical and challenging issue in the field of training. The ultimate goal of cognitive training is that the benefits from...

Le vieillissement du cerveau se traduit par un affaiblissement de certaines capacités cognitives telles que la mémoire ou l'attention. Néanmoins, de récents travaux montrent que des interventions cognitives peuvent améliorer ces capacités. D'autres études montrent également que ces interventions cognitives sont efficaces chez les personnes à risque...

Virtual reality (VR) allows for the creation of ecological environments that could be used for cognitive assessment and intervention. This study comprises two parts that describe and assess an immersive VR task, the Virtual Shop, which can be used to measure episodic memory. Part 1 addresses its applicability in healthy older adults by measuring pr...

Background: Assessing and predicting memory performance in everyday life is a common assignment for neuropsychologists. However, most traditional neuropsychological tasks are not conceived to capture everyday memory performance. New method: The Virtual Shop is a fully immersive task developed to assess memory in a more ecological way than tradit...

The reserve hypothesis suggests that some individuals develop a form of resilience against the detrimental effects of brain damage. Inter-individual differences in reserve have been related to a range of differences in cognitive lifestyle. This presentation will examine the evidence suggesting that differences in early-life education and late-life...

The concept of cognitive reserve has been proposed to account for inter-individual differences in the degree to which brain damage impacts cognition. Cognitive reserve has been associated with early life (e.g., education) and lifelong (e.g., hobbies or profession) cognitive stimulation. Cognitive training may be used as an opportunity to provide or...

The concept of cognitive reserve has been proposed to account for the interindividual differences in the impact that pathology or age-related cerebral changes has on cognition. More reserve has been associated with factors such as higher educational attainment and greater engagement in cognitively stimulating activities and these are often used as...

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between educational attainment, regional grey matter volume, and functional working memory-related brain activation in older adults. The final sample included 32 healthy older adults with 8 to 22 years of education. Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to measure regional volume...

La notion de réserve a été proposée pour expliquer l’écart observé chez certains individus entre le degré de leur atteinte cérébrale et son expression sur le plan cognitif. La réserve serait modulée par des facteurs environnementaux tels que le niveau d’éducation et la pratique d’activités cognitivement stimulantes au cours de la vie. Un important...

La maladie d’Alzheimer commence par une phase de trouble cognitif léger (TCL), caractérisée par la présence de symptômes mineurs ayant peu ou pas d’impact sur l’autonomie fonctionnelle. L’étude de patients souffrant d’un TCL a permis des avancées spectaculaires dans la compréhension du prodrome de la maladie. Il est ainsi possible d’en dégager le p...

Alzheimer’s disease is characterised by a slow progression and by an extensive prodromal phase during which symptoms are dormant or very mild. The term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has been used to refer to older adults who do not meet the criteria for dementia but who present cognitive complaints and whose cognitive abilities do not fall within...

http://cag.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=4030&action=prog_list&session=40085 Numerous studies have shown that cognitive training can improve cognition in healthy older adults and in persons with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. However, whether those effects transfer beyond the trained task remains a critical and challengin...

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(16)30837-8/pdf A target population for cognitive intervention is individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) as they are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and are complaining about their memory. An important research question is whether the efficacy of cognitive training and un...

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(16)30676-8/pdf Functional neuroimaging techniques are increasingly used to assess the neuroplastic compensatory processes induced by cognition focused interventions. Methods: This conference will present studies investigating the effect of attention and/or memory training on task-related brain...

Inter-individual differences in cognitive lifestyle (formal education, hobbies, profession) were found to change the relationship between neurodegenerative diseases and theirs symptoms. The reserve hypothesis proposes that lifestyle can create a form of resilience against brain diseases. Though the concept of reserve has been most often used in the...

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(15)02457-7/pdf Memory training can be a powerful approach to improve memory and promote compensatory brain plasticity in the prodromal phase of Alzheimer’s disease. Methods:Twenty older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) received three onehour sessions of group memory training wher...

http://www.humanbrainmapping.org/files/2015/2015%20Honolulu%20Abstracts%20FINAL.pdf

https://thecanadiangeriatricssociety.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/CGS_ASM_Program_FINAL.pdf

La sensibilité aux effets cliniques des lésions cérébrales varie d’un individu à l’autre. Cette variabilité interindividuelle s’expliquerait par des degrés distincts de réserve, c’est-à-dire des différences cérébrales qui amortiraient ou compenseraient les effets du vieillissement. Cet article présente une synthèse des études de neuro-imagerie sur...

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(14)00267-2/pdf There is increasing evidence that cognitive training can benefit older adults. Nonetheless, a number of important questions remain unanswered regarding the neural impact of cognitive training for older adults: 1) Does training enhance specialized brain regions or recruit new reg...

L'objectif de ce travail de thèse était d'évaluer l'état des processus de récupération en mémoire dans la maladie d!Alzheimer afin de développer des programmes de prise en charge cognitive novateurs. Les deux premières études ont porté sur la caractérisation de ces processus à travers l'évaluation des performances de patients avec une maladie d!Alz...

This study was designed to extend the use of a memory training technique, known as the repetition-lag procedure, to Alzheimer patients. The specificity of this procedure is to target the process of recollection for improvement. A group of 12 patients were trained individually for 6h. The training procedure consisted of a series of yes/no recognitio...

http://www.frontiersin.org/10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00611/event_abstract The ACT* theory postulates that cognitive skill learning comprises three main stages: cognitive, associative, and autonomous. During aging, learning is slowed but the sequence of each stage is spared. The present study addressed the roles of strategy variations and aging in...