Cognitive Engagement and Aging Mind

Age-related Cognitive Decline Clinical Trial

Official title:

Cognitive Engagement and Aging Mind: A Randomized Control Trial to Determine the Effects of Adaptive Real-time Strategy Game Training on Cognition and Brain Functions of Older Adults

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05924490
• Other study ID #: IRB 12-57
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: January 31, 2013
• Est. completion date: October 1, 2018

Study information

• Verified date: May 2021
• Source: The University of Texas at Dallas
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this research is to examine whether and to what extent training of different types of cognitive engagement will improve performance on fluid cognitive abilities that typically decline with age. The research covered by this protocol will use behavioral data that yield response latencies and accuracies of the untrained tasks, and brain activations in fMRI tasks, to test specific hypotheses about neural plasticity and cognitive plasticity from these engagement techniques. Hence, human subjects will be employed in an experiment lasting for 20 hours spanning over 2 months where they will either receive real-time strategy-based videogame training or crystallized intelligence training. In addition, long-term retention data will be obtained after 6 month post-training to investigate any long-term benefits.

Description:

The purpose of this research is to examine whether and to what extent training of different types of cognitive engagement will improve performance on fluid cognitive abilities that typically decline with age (such as, speed of information processing, working memory capacity, episodic memory, and executive functions). The research covered by this protocol will use behavioral data that yield response latencies and accuracies of the untrained tasks, and brain activations in fMRI tasks, to test specific hypotheses about the extent of transfer, if any, and the underlying cognitive constructs that may be trained in the process. Hence, human subjects will be employed in an experiment lasting for 20 hours spanning over 2 months where they will either receive real-time strategy-based videogame training or crystallized intelligence training. In addition, long-term retention data will be obtained after 6 month post-training to investigate any long-term benefits.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 58
• Est. completion date: October 1, 2018
• Est. primary completion date: April 1, 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 50 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Right-handed

• over 50 Years of Age

• native or fluent English speaker

• not Color-blind

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging eligible

• Mini Mental Status Examination Score >24

Exclusion Criteria:

• Left-handed or ambidextrous

• younger than 50

• cannot distinguish colors during color blindness test

• claustrophobia

• metal artifact in body

• over 300 lb

• pacemaker

• MMSE score lower than 24

• history of stroke

• history of substance or alcohol abuse

• currently taking anti-psychotic or anti-depression medication

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Age-related Cognitive Decline
• Cognitive Dysfunction

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Real-time strategy-based videogame training
Rise of Nation is a complex strategy-based video game, in which individualized-adaptive feedbacks are constantly given to players based on their performance.
• Semantic Knowledge training
Packages of various cross-word puzzles include word search, word ladder, and word wheel.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	The Center for Vital Longevity (UT Dallas)	Dallas	Texas

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The University of Texas at Dallas

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Immediate change in the processing speed construct	Change in the processing speed construct from baseline to post-training. Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks
Primary	Immediate change in the composite score of executive functions	Change in the composite score of executive functions, and its subcomponents, from baseline to post-training. Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks
Primary	Immediate change in the composite score of episodic memory	Change in the composite score of episodic memory from baseline to post-training.Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks
Primary	Immediate change in brain activations during executive functions: multi-tasking	Change in fMRI brain activations from baseline to post-training.	9-11 weeks
Primary	Immediate change in brain activations during executive functions: working memory updating	Change in fMRI brain activations from baseline to post-training.	9-11 weeks
Secondary	Immediate change in the composite score of working memory capacity	Change in the composite score of working memory capacity from baseline to post-training.Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks
Secondary	Immediate change in the fluid reasoning measure	Change in the fluid reasoning measure (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, a paper and pencil test) from baseline to post-training. Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks
Secondary	immediate change in the composite score of cognition	Change in composite score of cognition from baseline to long-term retention. Composite score for overall cognition is summed across composite scores for executive function, processing speed, processing speed, working memory capacity and fluid reasoning. Higher change in score represents better outcome.	9-11 weeks