Brain Training games are increasingly gaining attention as a non-pharmacological intervention to promote well-being and quality of life in people living with dementia.  Herein we present the COSMA software and a pilot study to evaluate its impact on the emotions of people in the spectrum of dementia. The software was created in accordance to the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines as a ‘brain-stimulating’ software for use by people with cognitive impairment i.e., mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early dementia. The pilot study aims to investigate whether the current COSMA game designs have an impact on emotions in people with MCI and early dementia. The emotional evaluation before and after playing COSMA games was carried out using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Our findings demonstrated a small, but significant increase in positive emotions (MCI: p= 0.041; early dementia: p= 0.042) and decrease in negative emotions (MCI: p= 0.001; early dementia: p< 0.001). These preliminary results showed that people with MCI and early dementia experienced positive emotions while playing the COSMA games, suggesting that people with cognitive impairment may benefit from using the COSMA software regularly.

Novel protein sensors based on tapered optical fibres modified with Au coatings deposited using two different procedures are proposed. Au-based coatings are deposited onto a nonadiabatic tapered optical fibre using (i) a novel facile method composed of layer-by-layer deposition consisting of polycation (poly(allylamine hydrochloride), PAH) and negatively charged SiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs) followed by the deposition of the charged Au NPs and (ii) the sputtering technique. The Au NPs and Au thin film surfaces are then modified with biotin in order to bind streptavidin (SV) molecules and detect them. The sensing principle is based on the sensitivity of the transmission spectrum of the device to changes in the refractive index of the coatings induced by the SV binding to the biotin. Both sensors showed high sensitivity to SV, with the lowest measured concentration levels below 2.5 nM. The calculated binding constant for the biotin-SV pair was 2.2 × 10 −11 M −1 when a tapered fibre modified with the LbL method was used, with a limit of detection (LoD) of 271 pM. The sensor formed using sputtering had a binding constant of 1.01 × 10with a LoD of 806 pM. These new structures and their simple fabrication technique could be used to develop other biosensors.

Serious games have grown rapidly to provide cognitive stimulation for people with cognitive impairment. In this endeavour, we have created the COSMA games. In this two-arm study with patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), we investigated information processing speed and cognitive skills with 28 days of use of COSMA games, a brain stimulation gaming platform. We measured reaction times during neuropsychological assessment with the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery and the COSMA games. Results showed that people with MCI who played COSMA for 28 days at home were faster in 48% of the COSMA games and the Control group which played only during the laboratory visits was faster in 20% of the COSMA games at the end of the study.  Overall, these outcomes showed evidence that motor skill practice and learning retention are possible in people with MCI and that these skills are still able to improve with the regular practice of the COSMA games.

Serious gaming (SG) is an emerging field that has a unique role in healthcare. With big data and continuous monitoring becoming a new trend in healthcare, SG is evolving faster in the medical field due to its fit into psychology and neuroscience. The SG multi-perspective and multi-functioning framework has the potential to add new dimensions to current treatment pathways and make a significant contribution to healthcare big data. SG data will add more perspective and value to clinical data both from psychological and neurological perspectives, which are still underplayed fields. SG research directed into intensive scientific and clinical pathways is critical for the next level of evolution of health data and health systems. This chapter addresses the importance of psychological data being implemented into health data and SG's role and its future in contributing to new treatment pathways for any disease condition.