View clinical trials related to Cognitive Change.
Filter by:Much of human interaction is based on trust. Aging has been associated with deficits in trust-related decision making, likely further exacerbated in age-associated neurodegenerative disease (Alzheimer's disease/AD), possibly underlying the dramatically growing public health problem of elder fraud. Optimal trust-related decision making and avoiding exploitation require the ability to learn about the trustworthiness of social partners across multiple interactions, but the role that learning plays in determining age deficits in trust decisions is currently unknown. Aim: Probe the malleability of the underlying neurocircuitry of trust-learning deficits in aging. This study will utilize real-time fMRI neurofeedback to train older adults in brain activity up-regulation toward enhanced trust-related learning in aging and confirm critical mechanisms of experience-dependent social decisions in aging. Grant R01AG072658 Aim 3: Test the malleability of trust-learning neurocircuitry toward optimized trust-related decision making in aging.
The cognitive trajectory varies among non-demented older adults. In a 12-year follow-up study, we found approximately 5% participants presented rapid cognitive decline. Cardiovascular diseases increased the risk of cognitive decline. However, the influence of cardiovascular risk factors on cognitive decline remained inconsistent. Besides, the potential mechanism of the cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive function has not been fully investigated. Therefore, the proposed program will include two sub-studies. The first sub-study will use the longitudinal data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to evaluate the influence of cardiovascular risk factors on the trajectories of cognitive function. The second sub-study will recruit cognitive intact older adults with different levels of cardiovascular risk factors. The association among cardiovascular risk factors, cerebral blood flow, brain functional connectivity and cognitive function will be investigated with structural equation modeling. The findings of the proposed program will provide novel insight on preventing cognitive decline from the angle of maintaining healthy vascular function, and will provide evidence in elucidating the potential neurovascular mechanism between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive function.
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 Early Childhood version of Sugira Muryango is a family-based, home-visiting intervention targeted at early childhood development and implemented with families living in extreme poverty in three districts of Rwanda. This version of Sugira Muryango was first tested in two small pilot studies and a large cluster randomized trial (CRT) was implemented between February 2018 and September 2019 . Pre- to post-intervention findings demonstrated that Sugira Muryango led to improvements in caregiver behaviors linked to child development and health as well as reductions in violence, which were sustained 12 months after the intervention, at which time improvements in child development were observed. The Research Program on Children and Adversity in the Boston College School of Social Work is led by Dr. Theresa S. Betancourt and will, in partnership with the University of Rwanda, FXB-Rwanda and Laterite, conduct a longitudinal follow-up study to investigate the longer-term outcomes of the Sugira Muryango intervention in families who participated in the CRT. The four-year follow-up will examine the long-term and sustained outcomes of the intervention. In particular, the investigators will look at key indicators of long-term positive outcomes for children such as school readiness and transition to formal schooling. Given the lack of longitudinal research on intervention programs supporting ECD in sub-Saharan Africa, this study will contribute greatly to the body of knowledge on the costs and benefits of investments in ECD and guide policy makers and government leaders on making impactful investments in children, leading to long-term benefits for the population at large. The follow-up study involves two activities: Activity A: Pilot to assess measures performance of newly added measures and field test study protocols. Activity B: Four-year follow-up of families who participated in the CRT of the Sugira Muryango intervention.
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.
The research is designed as a randomized, 2-arm, parallel, controlled, human clinical trial to investigate the effects of avocado and mango consumption for 8 weeks on indices of macro- and micro- vascular function in individuals with prediabetes. FMD of the brachial artery, pulse wave velocity (PWV), central blood pressure (cBP), and Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (OCTA) of the eye will be used for vascular assessments. The research plan will also explore cognitive and kidney function benefits of regular avocado and mango intake using specified cognitive tasks and kidney function biomarkers
The Canadian Therapeutic Platform Trial for Multidomain Interventions to Prevent Dementia (CAN-THUMBS UP, or CTU) is a comprehensive and innovative program aimed to develop, implement and evaluate an interactive and compelling online educational Brain Health Support Program (BHSP) intervention, called Brain Health PRO (BHPro), with potential to positively influence dementia literacy, lifestyle risk factors, and scale-up to reach the broader Canadian public; enroll and retain a community-dwelling Platform Trial Cohort (PTC) of individuals at risk of dementia; and support an open platform trial to test a variety of multidomain interventions that might further benefit individuals at risk of dementia.