Clinical trial NCT03582579: Enhancing Brain Training With Virtual Reality
Official title: Enhancing Brain Training With Virtual Reality
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Lead sponsor: University of Rochester
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: NeuroTrainer
First posted: 2018-07-11
Enrollment: 80
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 75
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of brain training in a Virtual Reality set up in neurotypical populations as well as in the traumatic brain injury population.

Detailed description: Brain training is a large and a growing field, both scientifically and commercially. Emerging evidence demonstrates that training can promote beneficial brain plasticity in both healthy individuals and clinical populations. Much of the recent interest in brain training can be traced back to the seminal work done at the University of Rochester, where Daphne Bavelier and colleagues showed that training with action video games (AVG) can lead to a wide range of cognitive and perceptual improvements. In our recent work, we developed a novel training paradigm that isolates and concentrates the key aspects of AVG-training while eliminating complex and often violent gameplay associated with AVGs. The results revealed similarly broad effects of training as with conventional AVGs. In this study, we aim to move this training paradigm to virtual reality (VR) and extend its application to cognitive aging and mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) populations.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

A person is eligible for inclusion in the study if he/she:

* Is an adult over the age of 18.
* Has the capacity to give consent.
* Has normal or corrected to normal vision.
* Has adequate hearing.
* Is a non-action video game player.
* Is a non-VR game player. All subjects will be assigned to one of four groups: a Control Group training in VR, a Control Groups training on a 2D display, an Older Adult Group without dementia training in VR, and a College Athletes with mild TBI Group training in VR.

Specific Inclusion Criteria for both Control Groups. The subject must:

* Be between the ages of 18 and 35.
* Have no neurologic or vascular disorders/injuries.

Specific Inclusion Criteria for the College Athletes with TBI Group. The subject must:

* Be between the ages of 18 and 35.
* Be diagnosed with mild TBI (i.e., concussion) within the last two weeks.

Specific Inclusion Criteria for the Older Adult Group. The subject must:

* Be over the age of 65.
* Have no neurologic or vascular disorders/injuries.

Exclusion Criteria:

A person will be excluded from the study if he/she:

• Is under the age of 18.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Visual Crowding (a measure of spacial resolution of attention)
timeFrame: 6 weeks
measure: Attentional Blink (a measure of temporal resolution of attention)
timeFrame: 6 weeks
measure: Useful Field of View (a measure of spacial awareness)
timeFrame: 6 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Rochester
country: United States
facility: University of Rochester
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Rochester
name: Duje Tadin, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: