Recollection Training in Healthy Older Adults and Older Adults With Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Aging Clinical Trial

Official title:

Memory Interventions for Older Adults

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00643266
• Other study ID #: RecollectionTraining
• Secondary ID: CIHR MOP 67015AS
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 2008
• Est. completion date: August 2013

Study information

• Verified date: November 2018
• Source: Baycrest
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

We have developed a training intervention that successfully improves older adults' memory. We have also shown that older adults whose memory is as good as younger adults' memory (Hi-Old) use an altered pattern of memory-related brain activity compared to younger adults, whereas healthy older adults with poorer memory (Lo-Old) do not. We have also shown that individuals with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) have impairments of conscious, effortful, Recollection-based memory processes, whereas their automatic, Familiarity-based memory processes are intact. Our primary current goal is to investigate whether our successful memory intervention will improve Recollection and produce induce altered patterns of brain activity in the Lo-Old and aMCI.

Young, Lo-Old, Hi-Old, and aMCI will be scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing two memory tasks. Half of the Lo-Old and half of the aMCI will then receive the memory intervention, while the other half in each group will receive a control program consisting of information and games about aging. The Lo-Old and aMCI will then be rescanned while performing the two memory tasks. We predict that the memory intervention will improve performance on a number of memory tasks, and will induce altered patterns of brain activity. In the Lo-Old, their brain activity after the memory intervention will look more like the Hi-Old, while brain activity will become more focal in the aMCI.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 91
• Est. completion date: August 2013
• Est. primary completion date: August 2013
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 65 Years to 90 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 65-90 years old

• English as a first language or learned before kindergarten

• Right handed

Exclusion Criteria:

• Neurologic disorder

• Major medical disorder affecting cognition

• Psychiatric disorder

• Metal in the body that poses a hazard in the MRI scanner

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Aging
• Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment
• Cognitive Dysfunction

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Recollection Training
Participants are exposed to long lists of words. Each word is presented either visually or auditorily, and each word is repeated after a variable number of intervening words (the lag), in each the same modality, or the other modality. Participants are instructed to respond "yes" only to words repeated in the same modality. If a performance criterion is met, the lag is increased for the next session; if the performance criterion is not met, the same lag is repeated in the next session.
• Control
Participants view PowerPoint presentations on various topics related to memory and aging (e.g., structural brain changes, diet, stress, depression) and how each of these topics affect memory, and after each presentation, play a Jeopardy-like game to test their knowledge gain

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Baycrest	Toronto	Ontario

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Baycrest

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

References & Publications (5)

Anderson ND, Ebert PL, Grady CL, Jennings JM. Repetition lag training eliminates age-related recollection deficits (and gains are maintained after three months) but does not transfer: Implications for the fractionation of recollection. Psychol Aging. 2018 — View Citation

Anderson ND, Ebert PL, Jennings JM, Grady CL, Cabeza R, Graham SJ. Recollection- and familiarity-based memory in healthy aging and amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology. 2008 Mar;22(2):177-87. doi: 10.1037/0894-4105.22.2.177. — View Citation

Ebert PL, Anderson ND. Proactive and retroactive interference in young adults, healthy older adults, and older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2009 Jan;15(1):83-93. doi: 10.1017/S1355617708090115. — View Citation

Guild EB, Vasquez BP, Maione AM, Mah L, Ween J, Anderson ND. Dynamic working memory performance in individuals with single-domain amnestic mild cognitive impairment. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2014;36(7):751-60. doi: 10.1080/13803395.2014.941790. Epub 2014 — View Citation

Meusel LA, Grady CL, Ebert PE, Anderson ND. Brain-behavior relationships in source memory: Effects of age and memory ability. Cortex. 2017 Jun;91:221-233. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.12.023. Epub 2017 Jan 12. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Recollection estimates	Recollection, defined as Correct "yes" responses to "Same" repetitions minus Incorrect "yes" responses to "Different" repetitions, as a function of condition (trained versus control), lag (3, 16) and time (pre-, post-, and 3 month follow-up)	Immediately post-training and three months post-training
Secondary	Brain activation as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imaging	Prefrontal (inferior, middle, and superior frontal gyri) activation for Different Repetitions minus Same Repetitions, as a function of group (trained versus control), lag (3, 16), and time (pre, post). Additional analyses will compare trained versus control older adults with younger adults on these measures at baseline (pre). Analyses will include an exploration of prefrontal laterality of the effects (left minus right), to see whether training induces greater bilaterality of activation.	Immediately post-training
Secondary	Transfer to other recollection-dependent task and to subjective memory measures	Source memory, self-ordered pointing, n-back, a Sternberg task, CVLT, an AB-AC test of proactive interference, the Memory Controllability Inventory, Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (Ability and Contentment subscales), Meta-Memory in Adulthood questionnaire (locus of control, anxiety, and capability subscales), and an in-house measure of the efficacy of the control program	Immediately post-training and three months post-training