Reviewing the evidence
The evidence base for the use of Sensecam is primarily supported by individual case studies since RCT trial testing of this specific kind of intervention are not possible and meta-analysis have not being yet conducted due to the short time since SC’s release to the market. Amnesia (Viral Encephalitis) Loveday & Conway (2011) introduced the use of Sensecam to a 47 year old female individual, sufferer of amnesia as an outcome of HSVE, performing the most methodologically sound longitudinal case study in the SC literature so far. Claire’s brain scan demonstrated impairment in the ‘right Medial Temporal Lobe extending to the insula, connected basal ganglia parts, inferior frontal lobe and fusiform gyrus’ (p.698). The patients neuropsychological profile was complex, demonstrating significantly impaired autobiographical memory and recall, prosopagnosia and less impaired short term learning. As advised, Claire recorded 1 ‘discrete’ event (that complies to certain pre determined criteria) each day for 4 weeks using the SC and upon termination of the event wrote a short (1 page long) description of what she experienced on a diary. She also allocated a name to each event on a different page which served as a cue during the recall sessions. The recall session followed a highly specified procedure (incl. providing date records and voice recording to enable better content analysis of objective measures. The patient was presented with the name she allocated to each event of the week (starting from the first) and required to provide a detailed account of it. SC footage or cues from the diary was provided when retrieval stopped and she was asked again. Claire was also asked to rate her pre and post cue memories in terms of vividness on a scale 1-5(subjective measures). The results demonstrated that the SC cues were highly effective in triggering episodic memory recall and PMs so as strengthening the AB memories in terms of depth of details and specificity. Alzheimer’s Disease
Woodbery and Colleagues (2014) recruited 5 Alzheimer’s patients of mild-moderate severity (age range: 64-84) and tested their autobiographical memories following SC facilitated memory or diary facilitated memory over a time interval of 3.5 months (involving two times cue exposure across 2 weeks and memory recollection testing every 2 weeks). The results demonstrated the superiority of SC memory aid in eliciting more detailed and accurate recollection of recent events with personal importance. Impressively, SC yield 3 times higher episodic memory recollection (defining AD feature) over written diary memory aid (WD) in two respective follow ups (1 & 3 months post intervention) without need for memory prompting or recall corrections employment. The researchers reported that multiple exposure to SC cues and spaced retrieval might have facilitated better memory storage to the Long Term Memory system. Mild Cognitive Impairment Browne et al (2011), in a 10 month long experimentation with a 55 year old female MCI patient and also demonstrated SC advantage for promoting memory retrieval and consolidation for important events both in the short and the long term (6 months) in comparison to the traditional technique. Higher levels of self-confidence and lower levels of anxiety were also reported by the client. Brain Tumor Pauly-Taker and colleagues introduced sensecam to a male sufferer of brain tumor aged 11 and yield similar patterns of resusults. |
Anterograde amnesia (limbic encephalitis)
Berry, et al (2007), tested the efficacy of sensecam as a retrospective memory aid in a 63 year old female sufferer of anterograde amnesia as a result of limbic encephalitis. The patient reported high anxiety levels and her performance of the patient in a neuropsychological test battery reflected executive function, anterograde and retrograde semantic and autobiographical memory difficulties. The intervention lasted 11 months in total, the experimental conditions employed in the current research design were A) baseline (or no treatment), B) written diary and C) SC use. The patient’s initial recollection of past days event, were graded on a scale from 1-100(1memory=10%) and she was then presented with SC or diary footage. Recollections were obtained and rated accordingly every 2 days until the termination of all trials. The results demonstrated that SC was superior to the diary or baseline in supporting autobiographical memory recall (80% recall of episodic information for personal events) as opposed to (49%) diary- facilitated event recollection, exerting long lasting effects (11 months post intervention with three months lack of exposure) in contrast to diary use (memory lost after one month’s lack of exposure). Anxiety alleviation was also reported. Aquired Brain Injury Brindley et al (2011) investigated whether Sensecam- as incorporated into a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) context, constitutes an effective treatment approach for supporting the recall of autobiographical memory. The case study included a 21 year old male patient who had sustained Aquired Brain Injury (ABI) causing significant brain damage. A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment revealed deficits in sustained attention, figure and verbal recall, memory, executive function and verbal processing speed. Concurrent anxiety disorder was also identified, triggering affective difficulties. Three experimental conditions were employed to assist autobiographical memory retrieval during 7 time intervals and in the context of three social events: A) no recall aid (control) B) Automatic Thought Record sheets (highly established memory aid approach) and C) SC memory aid. The pattern of results yield support that SC was a lot more efficacious in supporting the recall of memories with personal significance (94%) than no treatment (39%) or ATR (22%). Some of the observed advantages include production of gradually increasing autobiographical memory recall (whilst the initially strong ATR effect declined over time), with memories being richer and more detailed in overall content including precise internal state recollection; not evident in the other two approaches. Overall effects on cognition
In a more recent study, Silva and colleagues (2013) studied the neuropsychological test performance and autobiographical memory retrieval abilities of 15 young adult (mean age:19, N=29) and 14 older adult healthy volunteers (mean age:75, N=29) following 3 day use of SC as compared to 3 days diary recording. Both age groups (with an age effect in performance) showed improved performance in the autobiographical memory test (reporting transfer effects to memories not depicted in sensecam), semantic and verbal memory, executive function, working memory measures following SC use that were significantly greater than the diary condition. |