The Cognition and Flow Study

Summary

About the research

There are currently 850,000 people living with dementia in the United Kingdom. It is now understand that Alzheimer's disease (AzD) can result from damaged blood vessels in the brain. Brain blood flow can be measured using ultrasound, known as transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (or TCD).

Brain training (BT) uses exercises or brain-teasers to try to make the brain work faster and more accurately. In recent years, BT has been used to try to improve memory, mood, learning, quality of life, and ability to carry out every-day activities in people with dementia.

Aims

1. To find out how acceptable and manageable this BT program is for people with dementia to undertake larger studies of BT in the future.
2. To look for any benefits for people with dementia, such as, improvements in quality of life, ability to carry out everyday tasks, mood, and brain blood flow.

How will the research be carried out?

* Forty patients with AzD, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and twenty healthy older adults will be recruited from memory and geriatric clinics, Join Dementia Research, general practice surgeries and community groups.
* Participants will be randomly assigned to brain training or control. The control group will be offered the program at the end of the study.
* First visit: Participants will complete questionnaires on quality of life, mood, everyday abilities, memory and an assessment of brain blood flow
* Brain training program: Participants will complete 15-30 minute sessions, 3-5 times per week
* Follow-up: participants will repeat the questionnaires and assessment of brain blood flow
* Interviews and feedback: to discuss how participants felt the program went, and find out if there are any ways it could be improved.

Conditions

• Dementia
• Alzheimer Disease
• Mild Cognitive Impairment
• Aging
• Cognitive Impairment

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive Training

Lumosity© is a commercially available software, developed by a group of neuropsychologists, which has been used across several studies of brain training and disciplines. The brain training software targets multiple brain areas, is based online, and is relatively easy to use and administer. It has been designed to adapt to the individual's memory performance to personalise the training program to their needs. Brain exercises will be selected with the support of Lumosity© to target the following brain areas; attention, memory, visuospatial, verbal fluency, and language.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Dunhill Medical Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• University Hospitals, Leicester

  collaborator OTHER

• Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Nottingham

  collaborator OTHER

• Lumosity

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of Leicester

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

50 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-01-14

Primary Completion

2020-09-04

Completion

2020-09-04

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations