Clinical trial NCT05907343: Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation as a Potential Intervention for Cognitive Decline
Official title: Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation as a Potential Intervention for Cognitive Decline
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Mild Cognitive Impairment
Keywords: MCI
Older adults
Cognitive control
Memory impairment
Lead sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-06-18
Enrollment: 180
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 90
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The goal of this clinical study is to investigate the effectiveness of non-invasive stimulation to enhance cognitive control abilities in cognitively healthy adults and older adults diagnosed with mild cognitive disorder (MCI). The main questions it aims to answer are:

* whether it is possible to restore various cognitive functions in older adults diagnosed with MCI by delivering theta burst stimulation (TBS), a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, and
* whether closed-loop TBS is able to induce therapeutic benefits that outperform open-loop TBS.

Participants play a cognitive video game while a brain-computer interface (BCI) analyzes their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and decodes the presence or absence of the contingent negative variation (CNV) potential, a marker of cognitive control. The BCI triggers TBS when its outputs indicate that the participant is not engaged properly in the video game.

Researchers will compare the effects of sham, closed-loop, and open-loop TBS using the outcome metrics described below to see how much cognitive restorations is achievable with each stimulation modality.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Cognitively normal younger adults

  1. Ages between 18 to 35 years
  2. Good general health
  3. Normal or corrected vision
  4. Completed elementary school education or able to understand middle school level experiment instructions
* Cognitively normal older adults

  1. Ages between 60 to 90 years
  2. Good general health
  3. Normal or corrected vision
  4. Completed elementary school education or able to understand middle school level experiment instructions
  5. Score of 23 or higher on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a brief formal cognitive screening test, which is used to indicate absence of cognitive impairment
* Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

  1. Ages between 60 to 90 years
  2. Diagnosis of MCI according to the National Institute on Aging - Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) criteria
  3. Good general health
  4. Normal or corrected vision
  5. Completed elementary school education or able to understand middle school level experiment instructions

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Neurological or psychiatric diseases (e.g., personal history of epilepsy/seizure brain damage, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, substance use disorder, etc.).
2. Current use of psychotropic medications with cognitive side effects (e.g., benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, etc.)
3. Current use of cognitive enhancing medications (e.g., Adderall, Memantine, etc.)
4. Factors hindering EEG acquisition and TMS delivery (e.g., skin infection, wounds, dermatitis, etc.)
5. Factors hindering MRI acquisition (e.g., implants, metallic tattoos, etc.)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Behavioral performance of the video game task
timeFrame: Up to 1 hour after intervention
measure: Accuracy of the BCI classifier output
timeFrame: Up to 1 hour after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment I: Montreal Cognitive Assessment
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment II: Hopkins Adult Reading Test
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment III: Multilingual Naming Test
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment IV: Animal Naming
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment V: Number Span
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment VI: Trail Making Test
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment VII: Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment VIII: Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment IX: Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment X: Controlled Oral Word Association Test
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
measure: Cognitive assessment XI: Stroop Color and Word Test
timeFrame: Up to 8 weeks after intervention
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Austin
country: United States
facility: Health Discovery Building
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
name: José del R. Millán, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
name: Robin Hilsabeck, PhD, ABPP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: