View clinical trials related to Memory Disorders in Old Age.
Filter by:The Interventions for Brain Health Virtual Reality Study is a NIH-funded clinical research trial at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Health under the supervision of the study principal investigator Dr. Judy Pa. The overarching goal of this trial is to use a novel virtual reality (VR) based intervention that simultaneously engages physical and cognitive activity aimed at improving brain health and cognition in older adults. The investigators will compare 3 types of interventions: physical activity, VR cognitive activity, and combined VR physical and cognitive activity over 16 weeks to evaluate physical and brain health changes.
Alzheimer's disease and its preclinical stages are characterized by progressive neurodegenerative changes in the hippocampi and default mode network resulting in dysfunctions in episodic memory and its central part the associative memory. Associative memory allows for learning and remembering the relationship between unrelated items. Previous research suggests that non-invasive brain stimulation can influence associative memory but with the caveat of quite a small precision and relatively small effects due to the ability only influence superficial brain areas. Novel Brain stimulation techniques such as temporal interference stimulation (TIS) allow overcoming these caveats by allowing focal non-invasive deep brain stimulation. The main goal of this pilot clinical trial is to modulate associative memory among healthy seniors by influencing the cortico-hippocampal circuits using TIS. Secondly, the goal is to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and EEG to explore the neural correlates of TIS effects on brain networks and find biomarkers that allow predicting better response to brain stimulation.
This study is designed as a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized parallel-group study that will be completed at the clinical research facility at St. James' Hospital and at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. A total of 100 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients will receive a (real or control) non-invasive transcutaneous electrical stimulation procedure. Patients will be assigned to one of four groups. One group will receive active stimulation, while the three groups will be control groups. One groups will be receive sham stimulation (inactive control), while a second group will receive active stimulation and local anesthesia and a third group will stimulate a different nerve (active control; same sensation different nerve). The investigators will include three control groups to verify that the effect is real and location specific and cannot be associated to a sensation effect. The investigators have opted to use a parallel-group design as it is unclear what the carry-over effect and/or wash-out period will be for stimulation. To eliminate subjective bias, all patients and the investigator testing the endpoint measures will be blinded to the type of intervention. The primary outcome, i.e. memory recall, will be determined by a word association task recorded immediately after stimulation, 7 days after stimulation, and 28 days after stimulation. The secondary outcomes is neurophysiological changes determined by resting state EEG, which will be assessed immediately before and after stimulation in the first session. The investigators will conduct this study as follows: 1. Screening aMCI patients. 2. Randomly assigning aMCI patients to one of the four groups. 3. Administering one session active stimulation (n = 25) or control (n = 25 in each of three control group) stimulation paired with a word-association task; administered by research assistant. 4. Behavioral assessments after each of the three blocks of studying the word associations and neural measures immediately after the last session of Behavioral assessments (T0). 5. Behavioral assessments at seven (T1) and 28 (T2) days after stimulation.
The purpose of this study is to see if stimulation of the brain can improve memory. The investigators will use a device called transcranial magnetic stimulation that can stimulate and activate a specific part of the brain that is important for memory. The study will enroll MCI subjects and subjects with subjective memory complaints who will be randomly assigned to receive active or sham brain stimulation. 'Blinded' or 'sham-controlled' means that the subject will not know whether the treatment they receive is the active treatment or the non-active stimulation. In the 'sham' condition, the stimulator will turn on but will not actually be stimulating the target brain region.
To investigate the efficacy of an individualized treatment plan delivered through remote technology along with enhanced staff training within a supervised memory unit on patient outcome, care quality, health care utilization/cost, and staff burden. Remote monitoring of activity data will also be explored.