Serious games to cognitively stimulate older adults: A systematic literature review

With the increasing number of older adults in today's population, it is important to promote active ageing in order to offer them better life conditions, and enable them to be autonomous as long as possible despite the problems arising from aging. To guarantee active aging, physical, social and mental conditions must be considered. In this research we mainly focus on the cognitive functions implicated in aging. To cope with the cognitive impairments, many proposals have been put forward that exploit digital interactive technologies in interdisciplinary projects. An area that has high potential is the use of serious games supported by some interactive technology because of their potential attractiveness and engagement. We report on a systematic literature review that has been carried out in order to explore and analyse the various proposals in this field and, on the basis of the results, identify the interactive devices that have been considered, the results achieved in terms of cognitive support, and current trends in this area.