Noradrenergic Activity and Attention

Aging Clinical Trial

— NAA  

Official title:

The Influence of Noradrenergic Activity on Attentional Control in Younger and Older Adults

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05120713
• Other study ID #: UP-21-00711
• Status: Completed
• Start date: November 1, 2021
• Est. completion date: November 20, 2023

Study information

• Verified date: November 2023
• Source: University of Southern California
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Older adults demonstrate increased distractibility by task-irrelevant information which contributes to general cognitive impairment. However, it is yet unclear how changes in noradrenergic activity during aging influences attentional control. In the current study, tonic noradrenergic activity will be increased or decreased to investigate its behavioral and neural effects on attentional control.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 164
• Est. completion date: November 20, 2023
• Est. primary completion date: November 20, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Fluent in English

• Aged between 18-35 or 50-80

• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing, and normal color vision

• Have a mobile phone and email address

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-English speakers

• Currently practicing any relaxation, meditation, or breathing technique for more than an hour per week

• Have participated in studies measuring attentional capture in the past year

• Experiencing symptoms of dementia

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Aging

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology	Los Angeles	California

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Southern California

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Initial eye-movements toward target and distractor shapes measured by an eye-tracker	The oculomotor suppression effect is a lower likelihood that salient display items will be the target of the initial eye movement in a visual search task compared to nonsalient display items. Using an eye-tracker, initial fixations toward the target, salient distractor, and nonsalient distractors will be compared as a measure of attentional control.	Calculated once at the end of the 1 day experiment