Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Frontal, Parietal, and Temporal Modulation in Older Adults After Inference-Based Lego Robot Programming Training

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Tzu-Yun Kung¹ (), Yi-Xin Fang¹, Wan-Rue Lin¹, Chih-Yu Chao¹, Ya-Ting Chang¹, Chia-Pin Yu², Hui-Fen Mao³, Chien-Te Wu^4,5, Joshua Oon Soo Goh^1,6,7,8; ¹Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., ²School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., ³School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., ⁴Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, ⁵Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, ⁶Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., ⁷Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan., ⁸Center of Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Robotics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Inference processing is a central mode of brain functioning that implicates a proliferative range of neural computations across different cognitive domains. We expected training older adult active inference processing would modulate system-wide brain functional efficiency across frontal, parietal, and temporal areas. In a randomized clinical trial, 47 older adults (mean (SD) age = 69.3 (4.94)) were assigned to the Experimental (self-generated solutions; n = 24, 8 males) or Control (instructed solutions; n = 23, 7 males) groups of a 12-week Lego Robot Programming course. The course trained participants in inference processing through code design, implementation, and updating to achieve goal robot behaviors. Before and after training, participants underwent a Visual Rule Inference Task (VRIT) functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment involving inferring assignments of stimuli color configurations to visual categories from feedback, and 19 additional cognitive assessments including episodic memory, working memory, reasoning, language, and perception. The experimental group improved in 12 cognitive assessments whereas the control group improved in five assessments. Both groups improved VRIT performances. Critically, the experimental group showed more focal neural response clusters in frontal, parietal, and temporal areas when self-generating color-category inferences in the VRIT. By contrast, functional responses in the control group during the same process were more diffuse in these brain areas. These findings suggest that the benefits of training self-generation of inferences transfers broadly to different cognitive domains. Moreover, a candidate neurocognitive mechanism for the observed broad cognitive transfer might involve better controls of frontal, parietal, and temporal operations for processing inferences.

Topic Area: THINKING: Other