Clinical trial NCT01297114: Imaging of Cognition, Learning, and Memory in Aging
Official title: Imaging of Cognition, Learning, and Memory in Aging
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Alzheimer's Disease
Lead sponsor: Columbia University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institute on Aging (NIA)
First posted: 2011-02-16
Enrollment: 294
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 20
Maximum age (years): 70
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Subjects will be recruited from ads placed in local newspapers and notices posted in the vicinity of Columbia University, the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and in local senior centers that provide written consent for notice placement. We will also utilize a market mailing approach. Letters will be sent to appropriately aged potential subjects randomly selected from commercial lists. Additional elderly subjects will be recruited from the Sergievsky Joint Database. Informed consent will be elicited from all subjects.

Brief summary: This investigation is designed to study how the brain functions when it is performing explicit memory tasks, and furthermore how the brain systems supporting performance on these tests change as a function of aging. Implicit memory tasks may be distinguished from explicit memory tests in that explicit memory characterizes the directed or intentional recollection of previously learned information or events. In contrast, implicit (or nonconscious) memory is expressed in the facilitation of performance on some task or judgment on a stimulus owing to a prior presentation of that stimulus, without any necessary conscious awareness of the prior presentation. The investigators propose to use functional Magnetic resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity during the performance of carefully designed explicit memory tasks. Comparison of brain activity during the different test conditions will provide information about the brain areas that are involved in mediating specific aspects of performance. Both older and younger individuals will be tested in order to understand age related changes in the brain activity. In order to examine the interactions between participants' differential levels of amyloid burden and their performance on cognitive tasks and fMRI neural activation, the investigators also propose PET imaging of older participants.

Detailed description: The basic approach to measuring the brain activity associated with a given cognitive process (or processes) is as follows: It is known that increases in brain neuronal activity are associated with local increases in energy metabolism. Under normal circumstances, increases in brain metabolism lead to local changes in blood oxygenation in venules and larger veins. This change in blood oxygenation can be detected imaging methods which are sensitive to the differences in magnetic state between oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin.

The ultimate benefit of this research is to better understand how changes in both performance and the brain organization underlying that performance are affected by aging.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Aged 20-30 or 60-70
* Residing near Columbia University Medical Center
* Must be willing and able to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

* Have a contraindication to PET (e.g, metallic implants, pacemaker, claustrophobia, or cannot lie flat for one hour)
* Pregnancy
* Lactating Women
* Current, past, or anticipated exposure to radiation
* Significant active physical illness

Primary outcomes:
measure: Cognition as measured with cognitive evaluations
timeFrame: cross sectional
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: New York
country: United States
facility: Columbia University Medical Center
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: Columbia University
name: Yaakov Stern, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Oh H, Steffener J, Razlighi QR, Habeck C, Stern Y. beta-Amyloid Deposition Is Associated with Decreased Right Prefrontal Activation during Task Switching among Cognitively Normal Elderly. J Neurosci. 2016 Feb 10;36(6):1962-70. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3266-15.2016.
citation: Oh H, Steffener J, Razlighi QR, Habeck C, Liu D, Gazes Y, Janicki S, Stern Y. Abeta-related hyperactivation in frontoparietal control regions in cognitively normal elderly. Neurobiol Aging. 2015 Dec;36(12):3247-3254. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2015.08.016. Epub 2015 Aug 24.