Aging, Cognitive Rehabilitation and eHealth: Insights from Clinical Neurosciences to Neuropsychology in Portugal

Abstract

Data from different sources indicate that the number of people with cognitive problems, dementia and psychopathology is increasing due to population ageing. The aging process in Portugal also has particular characteristics in the population due to vascular risk factors and other psychosocial comorbidities that can affect the quality of life of the elderly. Holistic cognitive intervention has shown good results in the prevention and rehabilitation of neurocognitive diseases using eHealth and different technologies in mental health, based on the neuroanatomical and functional knowledge of the brain at the level of neuronal connectivity; cognitive reserve and synaptic plasticity. But working with the geriatric population can be a great challenge for clinical neuropsychology since the frontier between healthy and pathological aging can be difficult to define. And for this reason, it is increasingly important to develop diagnostic and intervention methods adapted to the modern lifestyle with a balanced cost-effectiveness ratio accessible to the general population in cognitive rehabilitation programs.