Clinical trial NCT05924490: Cognitive Engagement and Aging Mind
Official title: Cognitive Engagement and Aging Mind: A Randomized Control Trial to Determine the Effects of Adaptive Real-time Strategy Game Training on Cognition and Brain Functions of Older Adults
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Age-related Cognitive Decline
Lead sponsor: The University of Texas at Dallas
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-06-29
Enrollment: 58
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 50
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The purpose of this research is to examine whether and to what extent training of different types of cognitive engagement will improve performance on fluid cognitive abilities that typically decline with age. The research covered by this protocol will use behavioral data that yield response latencies and accuracies of the untrained tasks, and brain activations in fMRI tasks, to test specific hypotheses about neural plasticity and cognitive plasticity from these engagement techniques. Hence, human subjects will be employed in an experiment lasting for 20 hours spanning over 2 months where they will either receive real-time strategy-based videogame training or crystallized intelligence training. In addition, long-term retention data will be obtained after 6 month post-training to investigate any long-term benefits.

Detailed description: The purpose of this research is to examine whether and to what extent training of different types of cognitive engagement will improve performance on fluid cognitive abilities that typically decline with age (such as, speed of information processing, working memory capacity, episodic memory, and executive functions). The research covered by this protocol will use behavioral data that yield response latencies and accuracies of the untrained tasks, and brain activations in fMRI tasks, to test specific hypotheses about the extent of transfer, if any, and the underlying cognitive constructs that may be trained in the process. Hence, human subjects will be employed in an experiment lasting for 20 hours spanning over 2 months where they will either receive real-time strategy-based videogame training or crystallized intelligence training. In addition, long-term retention data will be obtained after 6 month post-training to investigate any long-term benefits.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Right-handed
* over 50 Years of Age
* native or fluent English speaker
* not Color-blind
* Magnetic Resonance Imaging eligible
* Mini Mental Status Examination Score \>24

Exclusion Criteria:

* Left-handed or ambidextrous
* younger than 50
* cannot distinguish colors during color blindness test
* claustrophobia
* metal artifact in body
* over 300 lb
* pacemaker
* MMSE score lower than 24
* history of stroke
* history of substance or alcohol abuse
* currently taking anti-psychotic or anti-depression medication

Primary outcomes:
measure: Immediate change in the composite score of executive functions
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
measure: Immediate change in the composite score of episodic memory
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
measure: Immediate change in brain activations during executive functions: multi-tasking
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
measure: Immediate change in brain activations during executive functions: working memory updating
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Immediate change in the composite score of working memory capacity
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
measure: Immediate change in the fluid reasoning measure
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
measure: immediate change in the composite score of cognition
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
Other outcomes:
measure: Immediate change in the processing speed construct
timeFrame: 9-11 weeks
Locations:
city: Dallas
country: United States
facility: The Center for Vital Longevity (UT Dallas)
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: The University of Texas at Dallas
name: Chandramallika Basak, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: