Research & Insight

Articles

Plain-language explainers on dementia research, assessment tools, and the science behind what we do.

Research & Insight

Evidence-based reviews of dementia assessment, nutrition, and cognitive stimulation. Written for grant reviewers, research partners, and clinicians. Every claim is grounded in peer-reviewed literature and honest about what the evidence does and does not support.

Assessment

What Is the Cookie Theft Test — and What Can It Tell Us About Dementia?

June 2026  ·  6 min read

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Nutrition

Can What You Eat Slow Dementia? What the Research Actually Says

June 2026  ·  7 min read

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Philosophy & Perspective

From the hands-on perspective of working in retirement living and senior care. Not peer-reviewed — personal. Direct challenges to how dementia care is approached, the questions that don’t have clean answers, and the things he has seen that the research hasn’t caught up to yet.

Perspective

What Food Was Always Supposed to Do

June 2026  ·  Moses Oziel

A challenge to how institutional care thinks about food — and what happens when meals stop being about nourishment and start being about compliance.

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Research References

Peer-reviewed studies underpinning Captain's Chair research. The following studies form the scientific foundation of Captain’s Chair research and are cited across our published articles.

Assessment Instruments

  1. Fraser, K.C., Meltzer, J.A., & Rudzicz, F. (2016). Linguistic features identify Alzheimer’s disease in narrative speech. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 49(2), 407–422. doi:10.3233/JAD-150520
  2. Yorkston, K.M., & Beukelman, D.R. (1980). An analysis of connected speech samples of aphasic and normal speakers. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 45(1), 27–36. doi:10.1044/jshd.4501.27
  3. Becker, J.T., Boller, F., Lopez, O.L., Saxton, J., & McGonigle, K.L. (1994). The natural history of Alzheimer’s disease. Archives of Neurology, 51(6), 585–594. doi:10.1001/archneur.1994.00540180063015

Nutrition & Cognitive Decline

  1. Scarmeas, N., Stern, Y., Tang, M.X., Mayeux, R., & Luchsinger, J.A. (2006). Mediterranean diet and risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Annals of Neurology, 59(6), 912–921. doi:10.1002/ana.20854
  2. Morris, M.C., Tangney, C.C., Wang, Y., Sacks, F.M., Bennett, D.A., & Aggarwal, N.T. (2015). MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 11(9), 1007–1014. doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2014.11.009
  3. Smith, A.D., Smith, S.M., de Jager, C.A., et al. (2010). Homocysteine-lowering by B vitamins slows the rate of accelerated brain atrophy in mild cognitive impairment. PLOS ONE, 5(9). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012244
  4. Estruch, R., Ros, E., Salas-Salvadó, J., et al. (2013). Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(14), 1279–1290. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1200303