View clinical trials related to Cognitive Change.
Filter by:The purpose of the study is to test whether low level electric stimulation, called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), on the part of the brain (i.e., pre-supplementary motor area) thought to aid in memory will improve verbal retrieval in civilian (non-military, non-veteran) participants with histories of traumatic brain injuries. The primary outcome measures are neuropsychological assessments of verbal retrieval, and the secondary measures are neuropsychological assessments of other cognitive abilities and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. Additionally, the study will examine the degree to which baseline assessments of cognition, concussion history, structural brain imaging, and EEG predict responses to treatment over time, both on assessments administered within the intervention period and at follow-up.
The aim of this study as part of the SCOBES-AR project is to establish and test a protocol for implementation and usability of mixed reality-enhanced multidisciplinary screening tool for early detection of cognitive impairments in the elderly.
The present study investigates how individual differences in cognitive processing contribute to the efficacy of working memory training programs in an older adult population. In a randomized crossover design, different types of working memory training interventions will be evaluated within the same participants. Adding game-like elements to working memory training programs can increase motivation and engagement, which can increase learning. However this process, termed gamification, adds sensory complexity that can lead to increased mental load and/or distraction in older adults. Investigators hypothesize that gamification of training tasks will be beneficial to some and counterproductive to other participants. The investigators will test two models; the first assumes that participants with difficulty inhibiting distracting information will show better learning and transfer when assigned to non-gamified training, whereas those with more distractor tolerance will show better learning and transfer when assigned to gamified training. The second model states that the outcomes of the intervention will be better predicted by performance on measures of general cognitive ability. In a separate study, the investigators will compare working memory training that contains rich, multisensory information with a training program that contains only visual information. Here they will also test two models; the first assumes that participants with difficulty binding two stimulus streams will show better learning and transfer when assigned to visual-only working memory training, whereas participants who do not have this difficulty will show better learning and transfer when assigned to multisensory working memory training. The second model states that the outcomes of the intervention will be better predicted by performance on measures of general cognitive ability.
If a subject agrees to participate, the primary investigators will collect some basic information including age, height, and weight. Intake of some general questions regarding health and each subject will complete some tests that measure walking speed, cognition, and balance. During these tests participants will be asked to stand from a chair, walk up & down a staircase, walk over objects in a forward, backward, and sideways directions, walk around objects in forward and backward directions. After completing those tests, participants will be asked to repeat them while doing another task such as counting out loud, naming objects, or passing an object from one hand to another. At the end of the day, a step counter will be attached to each subject's ankle and you asked to wear it when awake for the next 7 days. Investigators expect that the evaluation will last 1 hour. After 7 days, subjects will return the step counter to the researchers and begin the exercise classes. The exercise classes will occur 2 days per week for 8 weeks. In the class participants will be asked to perform gentle exercises and use memory to improve brain functioning. Each class is expected to last 1 hour. At the conclusion of the exercise classes, investigators will again perform the gait, balance and cognitive tasks as we did before each started the class. Once a subject finishes all the exercise classes and testing, investigators will call one every week to see if you have had any falls at home. The calls will go on for 6 months.
Loss of independence, cognitive decline, and difficulties in everyday function are areas of great concern for older adults and their families. Cognitive training is one low cost, noninvasive training intervention that has repeatedly demonstrated reliable transfer effects to maintained cognition, everyday function, health, and most recently, a 29% reduction in incident dementia. Importantly, many of these everyday function effects are maintained across five to ten years including: maintained driving mobility, 50% reduction in at-fault vehicle crashes, and maintained Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Although clearly an important and effective intervention, the moderators and mechanisms underlying this program are unknown. The overall objective in this planning grant is to lay the conceptual and methodological foundation to explore cognitive, psychosocial, lifestyle behaviors, and biomarker mechanisms and moderators of two forms of conceptually driven cognitive training. Additionally, this study will examine how cognitive and psychosocial factors within daily life account for the transfer of cognitive training to everyday function. We will use a factorial design to randomize adults ages 55-85 to 0, 10, 20, 30, or 40 hours of two forms of cognitive training, a combined training, or an active comparison condition (Phase 1). An additional sample of participants will complete 20 hours of two forms of cognitive training or the active comparison group as well as provide blood samples (Phase 2). Across the study period, participants will complete cognitive, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial assessments at baseline, posttest, and approximately three month follow-up assessments in person or remotely using a study-provided laptop. Additionally, all participants will be asked to complete daily cognitive, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial measures daily using study-provided smartphones. This study will allow us to test the feasibility of our enrollment, assessment and training protocols for a future multisite clinical trial. This exploratory study is the first of its kind and will be used to provide important data relevant to a future larger randomized controlled trial examining mediators of cognitive training in a representative sample of adults. This information will assist in the future development of more effective home- and community-based interventions that maintain everyday function.
This study will focus on examining effects of stress on long-term mood and cognitive outcomes of late-life depression. It will also example the neural underpinnings of these changes using structural and functional brain imaging. Understanding how effects of stress in older depressed adults, as well as factors that might minimize those effects, lead to particular mood and cognitive outcomes will inform future development of novel prevention strategies.
The purpose of this study is to investigate neurocognitive mechanisms underlying response to intervention aimed at enhancing, and remediating weaknesses in, numerical skills in children, including those with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD).
The aim of this study is to test the casual relationship between carotenoid supplementation, cognitive function, and achievement over a school-year. The central hypothesis is that, relative to the waitlist placebo group, children receiving the carotenoid supplement will exhibit greater gains in cognitive function and achievement.
Dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease affects approximately 5.6 million adults over age 65, with costs expected to rise from $307 billion to $1.5 trillion over the next 30 years. Behavioral interventions have shown promise for mitigating neurodegeneration and cognitive impairments. Sleep is a modifiable health behavior that is critical for cognition and deteriorates with advancing age and Alzheimer's disease. Thus, it is a priority to examine whether improving sleep modifies Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology and cognitive function. Extant research suggests that deeper, more consolidated sleep is positively associated with memory and executive functions and networks that underlie these processes. Preliminary studies confirm that time-in-bed restriction interventions increase sleep efficiency and non-rapid eye movement slow-wave activity (SWA) and suggest that increases in SWA are associated with improved cognitive function. SWA reflects synaptic downscaling predominantly among prefrontal connections. Downscaling of prefrontal connections with the hippocampus during sleep may help to preserve the long-range connections that support memory and cognitive function. In pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease, hyperactivation of the hippocampus is thought to be excitotoxic and is shown to leave neurons vulnerable to further amyloid deposition. Synaptic downscaling through SWA may mitigate the progression of Alzheimer's disease through these pathways. The proposed study will behaviorally increase sleep depth (SWA) through four weeks of time-in-bed restriction in older adults characterized on amyloid deposition and multiple factors associated with Alzheimer's disease risk. This study will examine whether behaviorally enhanced SWA reduces hippocampal hyperactivation, leading to improved task-related prefrontal-hippocampal connectivity, plasma amyloid levels, and cognitive function. This research addresses whether a simple, feasible, and scalable behavioral sleep intervention improves functional neuroimaging indices of excitotoxicity, Alzheimer's pathophysiology, and cognitive performance.
Medical teams work in demanding situations that are often uncertain, changeable and require accurate decision-making, skilled movement and coordinated action. How teams perform matters for patient outcomes. In addition to medical expertise, how individuals and the team collectively respond and manage the psychological stress of the situation has a significant impact on performance. One approach, which attempts to explain the facilitating and debilitating effects of stress on performance is the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. A challenge state occurs when perceived personal resources meet or exceed the situation's demands, whereas threat occurs when demands exceed resources. Challenge states have been consistently associated with improved performance in a range of environments and activities, including medical settings. In a recent study conducted during a national simulation-based training event for residents (the SIMCUP Italia 2018) it was found that a high level of resources is associated with better performance until demands become very high. The present study builds on previous work to explore how challenge and threat states are linked to performance. It includes a more recently developed and robust measure of demands and resource appraisals. In addition, secondary aims include the exploration of how psychological variables, specifically cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, self-confidence and social identity (connection with other members of the medical team) are linked to challenge and threat and performance. Understanding the psychological determinants of performance in critical care can provide the basis for individual and team-based interventions to improve critical care team performance.