In phase three we have achieved substantial progress on most work packages of the project, all the tasks of the project were finalised including the socially guided spatial navigation task both in Cave and regular virtual environments, VR autobiographical memory task end films for episodic memory testing. In the socially guided spatial navigation (SSM), the subject navigates a virtual space with the scope of finding hidden virtual objects, and with the help of either a social co-player or of a robot player. The Norwegian partner collected data in the fMRI scanner, on a 7T MRI machine with subjects performing the task. The Romanian partner collected data with the same task in intracranially-implanted patients in brain structures relevant for spatial navigation, memory, and social processing and with. The same task was used with scalp electroencephalographic recordings for capturing activity in neural networks with high temporal resolution. These three different approaches will allow us to link behavioural events with neural activity, particularly in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, structures that encode spatial navigation. Our major interest will be in determining if neural activity tracks the navigation of a social partner. We are also interested in understanding how social inputs could benefit episodic (WP5 and 6) and autobiographical memory (WP7). In the next phase we will use the short movie as a stimulus for the episodic memory task with elderly subjects. We will also perform synchronized EEG recordings that will allow us to measure the level of synchronization between social partners before, during and after the social movie-watching experience. For the autobiographical task, the VR experimental procedure will also be applied on elderly subjects before being tested on subjects affected by cognitive decline. We are looking for solutions for challenges brought by COVID pandemics to social interaction tasks especially when subjects of interest are of age.
The project Social Transmission of Cognitive and Emotional States in the Care of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients” – STAD benefits from a 1.48 million € grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants. The aim of the project is to to develop an intervention based on theater and drama therapy for diminishing memory loss and psychiatric symptoms, like anxiety, that manifest in Alzheimer’s disease. Project Promoter: National University of Theatre and Film „I. L. Caragiale” from Bucharest, Romania. Project Partner: Kavi Institute for System Neuroscience, NTNU, Todheim, Norway EEA-RO-NO-2018-0606 (Contract No7, May 31th 2019)