Clinical trial NCT04600726: Application of VR-based Working Memory Screening Test
Official title: Application of VR-based Working Memory Screening Test to Facilitate Early Detection of Dementia
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Older Adults With Mild Neurocognitive Disorders
Older Adults With Non-communicable Diseases
Healthy Age-matched Older Adults
Keywords: Cognitive function screening
Lead sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behavior. The University of Leicester
name: School of Psychology, The University of Nottingham
name: The Alice Ho Miu Ning Nethersole Hospital
First posted: 2020-10-23
Enrollment: 160
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 65
Maximum age (years): 80
Standard ages: OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Older adults who are community dwelling

Brief summary: We propose to validate an interactive, immersive spatial memory test from the laboratory test. This VR-based working memory test (VRWMT) is a first-person, self-pacing game embedded within a virtual reality environment, the program is easily implemented with minimal instructions and no supervision that can be community-users friendly. It is specifically designed to assess rapid spatial working memory - a common deficit in all NCD subtypes. Its ability to detect pathological models of dementia, age-related deterioration, and hippocampal dysfunction are well established in literature

Detailed description: The proposed research aims to study the ability of VRWMT to discriminate between older adults with known mild NCD, healthy age-matched older adults and participants with non-communicable diseases and to predict their deterioration in cognitive function over a period of 12 months. Moreover, this study is to characterize and evaluate any concurrent validity between emergence of deterioration in the VRWMT and clinical tools of functional performance in older adults. Additionally, the potential of inflammatory and metabolic dysregulation biomarkers to increase our ability to detect early NCD risk over and above the predictive validity of the VRWMT. The study findings will bring both social and clinical significance to ageing and NCD research. The combination of behavioural and biomarkers of pathological significance offers an innovative approach that potentially addresses the limitations intrinsic to either measure alone.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* the ability to understand verbal and written Chinese instructions
* the ability and willingness to provide informed consent and sign the relevant document.

Exclusion Criteria:

* a history of substance abuse including alcohol, drugs, or any medication/substances indicative of chronic abuse;
* participants with major NCD.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Delayed matching-to-place (DMP)
timeFrame: 20 mins
measure: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment - Hong Kong Version
timeFrame: 15 mins
measure: The Chinese Multiple Errands Test
timeFrame: 20 mins
measure: Biological biomarkers for older adults with NCDs and Healthy Control
timeFrame: 5 mins
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
References:
citation: Daugherty AM, Raz N. A virtual water maze revisited: Two-year changes in navigation performance and their neural correlates in healthy adults. Neuroimage. 2017 Feb 1;146:492-506. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.09.044. Epub 2016 Sep 19.
citation: Daugherty AM, Bender AR, Yuan P, Raz N. Changes in Search Path Complexity and Length During Learning of a Virtual Water Maze: Age Differences and Differential Associations with Hippocampal Subfield Volumes. Cereb Cortex. 2016 Jun;26(6):2391-401. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhv061. Epub 2015 Apr 1.
citation: Folley BS, Astur R, Jagannathan K, Calhoun VD, Pearlson GD. Anomalous neural circuit function in schizophrenia during a virtual Morris water task. Neuroimage. 2010 Feb 15;49(4):3373-84. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.11.034. Epub 2009 Dec 4.
citation: Daugherty AM, Yuan P, Dahle CL, Bender AR, Yang Y, Raz N. Path Complexity in Virtual Water Maze Navigation: Differential Associations with Age, Sex, and Regional Brain Volume. Cereb Cortex. 2015 Sep;25(9):3122-31. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu107. Epub 2014 May 23.