View clinical trials related to Cognitive Aging.
Filter by:Poor sleep quality is a known risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly. Hearteningly, sleep is also a prime target for behavioral modification. In this study, the investigators propose to test mindfulness-based training (MBT) as an intervention to improve sleep quality by reducing sleep fragmentation, and hypothesize that these improvements will mediate the beneficial effects of MBT on sustained and executive attention. MBT consists of a suite of techniques aimed at enhancing awareness and acceptance of one's internal (e.g., thoughts and feelings) and external experiences in the present moment. Learning these techniques has been shown to improve sleep quality in patients with primary insomnia, and in other conditions associated with sleep disturbance. There is also increasing evidence that mindfulness training enhances multiple facets of cognition, including components of attention. In this study, the investigators will recruit 120 participants in a randomized controlled design, with 60 participants receiving MBT, and 60 receiving a sleep hygiene education and exercise program (SHEEP). Each intervention will last 8 weeks. Before and after the intervention, the investigators will collect objective and subjective measures of sleep quality, resting-state and task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, and performance on standard laboratory tests of attention. The investigators hypothesize that, relative to SHE, MBT will result in significantly greater improvements in sleep quality and attentional metrics. They also predict that the cognitive changes will be mediated by the changes in sleep quality. If a positive result is found, this would indicate the use of MBT as a cost-effective behavioral intervention to stabilize or even improve cognition in the elderly, thus reducing the risk of dementia in this vulnerable population.
This study tests the effectiveness of using a new mobile application (Bingocize®) to improve older adults' (a) adherence to an engaging exercise program, and (b) aspects of functional performance, health knowledge, dietary habits, and cognition.
The study will compare the effect of broad and directed (narrow) technology-based training on basic perceptual and cognitive abilities in older adults and on the performance of simulated tasks of daily living including driving and fraud avoidance.
Blueberries are rich in flavonoids that possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, which in rodent models are neuro-protective. The risk of developing dementia is reduced in people habitually consuming high flavonoid intakes, but data from human intervention studies is sparse. We therefore investigated whether 12 weeks of blueberry concentrate supplementation improved cognitive function in healthy elderly via increased brain activation and perfusion.
As the number of older people in Europe grows, increasing healthy life years is a priority. As people live longer, ensuring good mental as well as physical health into later years is becoming ever more important. Cognitive decline, dementia (e.g. Alzheimer's Disease, AD), sleep disturbances and depression, all related to psychological distress and anxiety, are significant drivers of reduced quality of life in older adults. This project builds on evidence that meditation practice have the potential to downregulate these adverse factors and positively impact mental and neurological conditions including AD.
Attentional control, or individuals' ability to choose which stimuli in the environment they attend to and which they ignore, declines with older age. Studies from the past two decades suggest that mindfulness meditative practice, such as a standardized mindfulness based stress reduction programs, may increase the efficiency of attention networks.To date, the majority of studies that have related mindfulness meditation practice to attentional control have been based on retrospective self-reported mindfulness or cross-sectional measurement in experienced meditators. More recent experimental studies using pre-post training designs have shown that meditation-naïve individuals can experience attentional improvement with mindfulness intervention. This study seeks to elucidate the time course and process by which such attentional improvements might be achieved. This research study investigates change in attentional control as participants progress through an 8-week mindfulness-inspired training (MIT) intervention, and has two specific aims: 1) to determine the time course of change in attentional components such as cognitive control and sustained attention as a consequence of MIT; attention will be measured weekly for 3 weeks before, 3 weeks after, and during 8 weeks of MIT. 2) To investigate the extent to which change in attentional performance is coupled/correlated with markers of emotion regulation, perceived mindfulness, and perceived mind wandering.
This proposal aims to determine whether low does of the alpha-2A-adrenoceptor agonist guanfacine can improve deficits in prefrontally-mediated cognitive functions in healthy elderly subjects.
To evaluate the effect of supplemented berry fruit juice and whole fruit berry powder on memory performance and brain function in older adults