Spotting and Managing Adult Repeated Traumas in the Brain

Summary

Emerging evidence suggests that concussions (a type of mild traumatic brain injury; mTBIs) may cause chronic neurological disturbances with effects lasting beyond 20 years, changing brain structure and nearly doubling the risks of developing dementia into old age. Yet diagnoses remain notoriously difficult, gender differences are poorly understood, and negligible therapies exist to manage and treat these long-term effects.

This project proposes using a combination of NeuroTracker (a promising software-based cognitive assessment and intervention for mild TBIs), with the latest MRI techniques and blood-based biomarkers of brain function, to provide unprecedented assessment sensitivity of long-term concussion effects, comparing older male and female adults, with and without a history of concussion. Additionally, NeuroTracker will be used as a therapeutic intervention to improve outcomes in adults with histories of concussion, with the combined assessments measuring efficacy pre-post training.

This project aims to comprehensively understand the impacts of mild brain traumas into later life, via both physical and functional biomarkers of brain health. It will also validate the value of NeuroTracker as an accessible training intervention for recovering cognitive functions impacted by earlier-life concussions.

Conditions

• Brain Injury Traumatic Mild

Interventions

OTHER

Perceptual-cognitive

The intervention is to determine the effectiveness of NeuroTracker for treating cognitive deficits associated with a prior history of concussion. NeuroTracker has a virtual cloud-based platform (NeuroTrackerX), which has been validated for use in research. This online platform allows participants to complete the interventions from home and greatly increases the accessibility of the program. Participants will have two 30-minute training sessions per week over the course of the 6-month intervention. Each session will consist of 3 blocks of 20 trials. For each trial in a block, participants sit upright, approximately 20" away from a standard computer or laptop screen, and wear anaglyph 3D glasses while focusing on the center of a standard 20" computer screen.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Victoria

  collaborator OTHER

• NeuroTracker Athletics Inc.

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Brain Canada

  collaborator OTHER

• Consortium québécois sur la découverte du médicament

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Université de Montréal

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jocelyn Faubert Principal Investigator, PhD · Université de Montréal

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-03-01

Primary Completion

2025-07-15

Completion

2027-02-28

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations