• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2019

Objective : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cognitive level of mild cognitive impaired elderly living in the community on participation in activities and social networks as well as leisure and daily life activities. Methods : The elderly people aged 65 years or older living in the community were selected for the mild cognitive impairment with a score of MMSE-K of 15 or more and 23 or less. MoCA-K was applied in order to examine the cognitive abilities of the subjects and K-ACS and LSNS-18 were applied to confirm the activity participation level and social network index. Results : As a result of examining the relationship between cognition and activity participation, various sub-abilities(spatio-temporal abilities, vocabulary abilities, attention, abstract thinking) of cognition had a significant influence on instrumental activities of daily living, leisure activities and social activities. In addition, all of the sub - abilities of cognition showed a significant correlation with sub-elements of social network. Conclusion : Through this study, it was found that the general elements of cognition influenced activity participation and social network of various areas of mild cognitive impaired elderly people. We suggest that measures for enhancing participation and social participation of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment are provided through follow up studies.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

Flavonoids are mainly contained in the vegetables and medicinal herbs. Until now, over 5,000 kinds of flavonoid have been identified and their biological activities have been reported. Among them, we are interested in oroxylin A and spinosin because of their specific structures having bulky group at C-6 of ring A. Oroxylin A is contained in the Scutellaria baicalensis and exhibits cognitive enhancing activity as a GABA_A receptor antagonist, which is different from those of mainly contained in the S. baicalenis, baicalein or wogonin. Spinosin is isolated from Zizyphus jujuba var. spinosa and mainly studied as a hypnotic or anxiolytic agent because of traditional knowledge about its original herb. As far as we know, the cognitive function of spinosin was first identified by our group. In this review, we discuss how such flavonoids exert their pharmacological activities associated with cognitive function based on the receptor binding study and behavioral studies. Traditional knowledge and reverse pharmacology may be addressed in the research field of phytochemical pharmacology and useful to unveil the secret of phytochemicals.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2023

Purpose : This study evaluated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program on the depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living of patients with mild cognitive impairment by dividing 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment and depression. The 20 patients were divided into a treatment group (transcranial direct current stimulation + a virtual reality program) and a control group (placebo transcranial direct current stimulation + a placebo virtual reality program). Methods : This study allocated ten subjects to the treatment group and ten subjects to the control group. The treatment was given five times per week for six weeks (30 sessions), and each session was 30 minutes. This study screened depression by using SGDS-K, a short geriatric depression scale, to examine depression before and after treatment intervention. This study also used the box and block test, NCSE, and FIM to evaluate hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living, respectively. Results : The results showed that depression significantly decreased, hand functions significantly increased, cognitive function significantly improved, and activities of daily living significantly increased after intervention in the treatment and control groups. The magnitude of changes in depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living was significantly different between the two groups after intervention (p>.05). Conclusion : The results showed that the application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program could improve cognitive function, hand functions, and activities of daily living by decreasing depression. Therefore, it can be concluded that the simultaneous application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program is an intervention method, which can be applied for decreasing depression, enhancing hand functions, improving cognitive function, and increasing activities of daily living in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

• Journal of Agricultural Extension & Community Development
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.99-110
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• 2018

Research confirms that healthful benefits accrued when people connect with nature and insect by viewing and interacting with them. Insect rearing is easy, relatively inexpensive, and can breed small space. This study aimed to investigate the physiological effects of animal assisted activity using insect(Oriental garden cricket) with diets and a rearing manual. The group of insect activity whose ages ranged from 65 to 82 years old that attending a community center in Daegu, Korea, were enrolled in the study between April and May 2014. The collected data was analyzed using qualitative analysis. Qualitative study is utilized to explore mental models, and their linguistic, affective, cognitive, social and cultural significance. The result showed that people-insect interactions promote well being of the elders, and the important aspect of insect activity aids in improvements in their social, emotional and cognitive functioning which were enhancing life satisfaction, reducing loneliness and increasing activities of daily life.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.47-61
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• 2018

A knowledge map, a taxonomy of knowledge repositories, must have capabilities supporting and enhancing knowledge user's activity to search and select proper knowledge for problem-solving. Conventional knowledge maps, however, have been hierarchically categorized, and could not support such activity that must coincide with the user's cognitive process for knowledge utilization. This paper, therefore, aims to verify and develop a methodology to build a networked knowledge map that can support user's activity to search and retrieve proper knowledge based on the referential navigation between content-relevant knowledge. This paper deploys keywords as the semantic information between knowledge, because they can represent the overall contents of a given document, and because they can play the role of semantic information on the link between related documents. By aggregating links between documents, a document network can be formulated: a keyword-based networked knowledge map can be finally built. Domain expert-based validation test was also conducted on a networked knowledge map of 50 research papers, which confirmed the performance of the proposed methodology to be outstanding with respect to the precision and recall.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.67-76
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• 2008

Objectives : Amnesia is theloss or impairment of memory, caused by physical injury, disease, drugs, or emotional trauma. Recently, the average life span is increasing, while at the same time, the incidence of dementia-like diseases in conjunction with amnesia are also increasing. Therefore learning and memory are very important issues in modern society. Ancient Korean physicians used several herbs to treat dementia and these herbal effects were described in Korean herbal books. Among them are some reports on several cognitive-enhancing herbs which have since been shown to improve dementia in recent pharmacological studies, such as Panax ginseng; however, the facilitatory effects of many Korean cognitive-enhancing herbs on learning and memory are limited. Learning and memory are essential requirements for every living organism in order to cope with environmental demands; cholinergic systems are known to be involved in learning and memory. Methods : In this study, the effects of Acori graminei rhizoma (AGR, 石菖蒲) on learning and memory were investigated by Morris water maze, eight-arm radial maze, and the effects on the central cholinergic system of rats injected with scopolamine. Results : In the water maze, the experimental animals were trained to find a platform in a fixed position for 6 days and then received a 60 sec probe trial in which the platform was removed from the pool on the 7th day. In the eight-arm radial maze, the animals were tested four times per day for 6 days. Scopolamine impaired performance of the maze tests and reduced activity of acetylcholinesterase (AchE) in the hippocampus, which is a marker for the central cholinergic system. There were significant reversals from the scopolamine-induced deficits on learning and memory in these tests, through daily administrations of AGR (100 mg/kg, p.o.) over 14 consecutive days. These treatments also reduced the loss of cholinergic activity in the hippocampus induced by scopolamine. Conclusions : These results demonstrated that AGR ameliorated learning and memory deficits by affecting the central acetylcholine system.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.224-230
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• 2011

In order to develop silk peptide (SP) preparations possessing cognition-enhancing effect, several candidates were screened through in vitro assays, and their effectiveness was investigated in facilitated brain aging model rats. Incubation of brain acetyl-cholinesterase with SP-PN (1-1,000 ${\mu}g/ml$) led to inhibition of the enzyme activity up to 35%, in contrast to a negligible effect of SP-NN. The expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) mRNA of neural stem cells expressing ChAT gene (F3.ChAT) was increased by 24-hour treatment with 10 and 100 ${\mu}g/ml$ SP-NN (1.35 and 2.20 folds) and SP-PN (2.40 and 1.34 folds). Four-week subcutaneous injections with D-galactose (150 mg/kg) increased activated hippocampal astrocytes to 1.7 folds (a marker of brain injury and aging), decreased acetylcholine concentration in cerebrospinal fluid by 45-50%, and thereby impaired learning and memory function in passive avoidance and water-maze performances. Oral treatment with SP preparations (50 or 300 mg/kg) for 5 weeks from 1 week prior to D-galactose injection exerted recovering activities on acetylcholine depletion and brain injury/aging as well as cognitive deficit induced by D-galactose. The results indicate that SP preparations restore cognitive functions of facilitated brain aging model rats by increasing the release of acetylcholine, in addition to neuroprotective activity.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.277-285
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper is to understand and express emotions and experiences from the perspective of others through empathy, which is crucial for maintaining social relationships. The smooth formation of interpersonal relationships through the physical activity of children with disabilities holds significant meaning. Children with disabilities often lack opportunities for interaction with their peers compared to typical children, and the absence of effective communication methods poses difficulties in forming relationships. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of a movement education program on enhancing empathy in children with disabilities. The program was implemented for 12 weeks from April to June 2023, involving five children with disabilities. The movement education program comprised 12 topics, encompassing physical, emotional, and cognitive domains. Empathy was measured in two areas: cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. The results indicated improvement in both cognitive and emotional empathy after the program compared to the pre-assessment. The rate of progress varied depending on the type and severity of the disability, but overall, positive changes in the development of empathy were observed. Through this research, it is hoped that movement programs can be practically utilized as a valuable resource.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.86-90
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• 2008

Two decursin derivatives were synthesized from decursinol. Compounds 1 and 2 were determined as 7-{3-[4-(2-Methoxy-phenyl)-piperazin-1-yl]-propoxy}-8,8-dimethyl-7,8-dihydro-6H-pyranochromen-2-one (1) and decursinol 3'-O-E-pmethoxycinnamic acid ester (2), respectively and newly reported. Compounds 1 and 2 significantly inhibited AChE activity and ameliorated memory impairment induced in mice by scopolamine (1.0 mg/kg body weight s.c.) as measured in passive avoidance test. We suggest, therefore, that compounds 1 and 2 has both anti-AChE and anti-amnesic activities that may ultimately hold significant therapeutic value in alleviating certain memory impairment observed in Alzheimer's disease.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.85-105
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• 2011

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to characterize the neuroprotective effects and anxiolytic-like effects of Gongjin-dan and Polygala japonica, Polygala tenuifolia, Acorus gramineus mixed pills(G.J.D-P.P.A.). Methods : The neuroprotective effects of G.J.D-P.P.A. determined by the passive avoidance and Y-maze tasks and Morris water maze task, and the anxiolytic-like effects of the G.J.D-P.P.A. using an elevated plus-maze(EPM) in mice. Results : Drug-induced amnesia was induced by treating animals with scopolamine(1 mg/kg, i.p.). A single G.J.D-P.P.A.(400 and 800 mg/kg) administration significantly enhanced cognitive function and attenuated scopolamine-induced cognitive impairments as determined by the passive avoidance and Y-maze tasks(P < 0.05) and also reduced escape-latency on the Morris water maze task(P < 0.05). The administration of GJD-PPA(400 and 800 mg/kg) significantly increased the percentage of time spent in open arms and entries into the open arms of the EPM compared with saline-treated control group(P < 0.05). Moreover, there were no changes in the locomotor activity and myorelaxant effects in any group compared with saline-treated control group. Conclusions : These results suggest that GJD-PPA dramatically possesses the anti-amnestic and cognitive-enhancing activities related to the memory processes, and promotes the anxiolytic-like activity in mice.