scholarly journals Assessing the Effect of Training on the Cognition and Brain of Older Adults: Protocol for a Three-Arm Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial (ACTOP) (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Boujut ◽  
Samira Mellah ◽  
Maxime Lussier ◽  
Samantha Maltezos ◽  
Lynn Valeyry Verty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
First Results ◽  
Imaging Dose ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND To prevent age-related cognitive impairment, many intervention programs offer exercises targeting different central cognitive processes. However, the effects of different process-based training programs are rarely compared within equivalent experimental designs. OBJECTIVE Using a randomized double-blind controlled trial, this project aims to examine and compare the impact of 2 process-based interventions, inhibition and updating, on the cognition and brain of older adults. METHODS A total of 90 healthy older adults were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions: (1) inhibition (Stroop-like exercises), (2) updating (N-back-type exercises), and (3) control active (quiz game exercise). Training was provided in 12 half-hour sessions over 4 weeks. First, the performance gain observed will be measured on the trained tasks. We will then determine the extent of transfer of gain on (1) untrained tasks that rely on the same cognitive process, (2) complex working memory (WM) measurements hypothesized to involve 1 of the 2 trained processes, and (3) virtual reality tasks that were designed to mimic real-life situations that require WM. We will assess whether training increases cortical volume given that the volume of the cortex is determined by cortical area and thickness in regions known to be involved in WM or changes task-related brain activation patterns measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Dose effects will be examined by measuring outcomes at different time points during training. We will also determine whether individual characteristics moderate the effect of training on cognitive and cerebral outcomes. Finally, we will evaluate whether training reduces the age-related deficit on transfer and brain outcomes, by comparing study participants to a group of 30 younger adults. RESULTS The project was funded in January 2017; enrollment began in October 2017 and data collection was completed in April 2019. Data analysis has begun in June 2020 and the first results should be published by the end of 2020 or early 2021. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study will help understand the relative efficacy of 2 attentional control interventions on the cognition and the brain of older adults, as well as the moderating role of individual characteristics on training efficiency and transfer. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03532113; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03532113 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/20430

scholarly journals Assessing the Effect of Training on the Cognition and Brain of Older Adults: Protocol for a Three-Arm Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial (ACTOP)

10.2196/20430 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. e20430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Boujut ◽  
Samira Mellah ◽  
Maxime Lussier ◽  
Samantha Maltezos ◽  
Lynn Valeyry Verty ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
First Results ◽  
Imaging Dose ◽  
The Impact

Background To prevent age-related cognitive impairment, many intervention programs offer exercises targeting different central cognitive processes. However, the effects of different process-based training programs are rarely compared within equivalent experimental designs. Objective Using a randomized double-blind controlled trial, this project aims to examine and compare the impact of 2 process-based interventions, inhibition and updating, on the cognition and brain of older adults. Methods A total of 90 healthy older adults were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions: (1) inhibition (Stroop-like exercises), (2) updating (N-back-type exercises), and (3) control active (quiz game exercise). Training was provided in 12 half-hour sessions over 4 weeks. First, the performance gain observed will be measured on the trained tasks. We will then determine the extent of transfer of gain on (1) untrained tasks that rely on the same cognitive process, (2) complex working memory (WM) measurements hypothesized to involve 1 of the 2 trained processes, and (3) virtual reality tasks that were designed to mimic real-life situations that require WM. We will assess whether training increases cortical volume given that the volume of the cortex is determined by cortical area and thickness in regions known to be involved in WM or changes task-related brain activation patterns measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Dose effects will be examined by measuring outcomes at different time points during training. We will also determine whether individual characteristics moderate the effect of training on cognitive and cerebral outcomes. Finally, we will evaluate whether training reduces the age-related deficit on transfer and brain outcomes, by comparing study participants to a group of 30 younger adults. Results The project was funded in January 2017; enrollment began in October 2017 and data collection was completed in April 2019. Data analysis has begun in June 2020 and the first results should be published by the end of 2020 or early 2021. Conclusions The results of this study will help understand the relative efficacy of 2 attentional control interventions on the cognition and the brain of older adults, as well as the moderating role of individual characteristics on training efficiency and transfer. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03532113; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03532113 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/20430

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Age-related changes in time perception: The impact of naturalistic environments and retrospective judgments on timing performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110233
Author(s):  
Martin Riemer ◽  
Thomas Wolbers ◽  
Hedderik van Rijn
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Time Perception ◽  
Ecological Validity ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Reduced Complexity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Age Related Changes

Reduced timing abilities have been reported in older adults and are associated with pathological cognitive decline. However, time perception experiments often lack ecological validity. Especially the reduced complexity of experimental stimuli and the participants’ awareness of the time-related nature of the task can influence lab-assessed timing performance and thereby conceal age-related differences. An approximation of more naturalistic paradigms can provide important information about age-related changes in timing abilities. To determine the impact of higher ecological validity on timing experiments, we implemented a paradigm that allowed us to test (i) the effect of embedding the to-be-timed stimuli within a naturalistic visual scene, and (ii) the effect of retrospective time judgments, which are more common in real life than prospective judgments. The results show that, compared to out-of-context stimuli, younger adults benefit from a naturalistic embedding of stimuli (reflected in higher precision and less errors), whereas the performance of older adults is reduced when confronted with naturalistic stimuli. Differences between retrospective and prospective time judgments were not modulated by age. We conclude that, potentially driven by difficulties in suppressing temporally irrelevant environmental information, the contextual embedding of naturalistic stimuli can affect the degree to which age influences the performance in time perception tasks.

scholarly journals Age-related Changes in Memory for Object and Position-In-Context

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Tran ◽  
Kaitlyn E. Tobin ◽  
Sophia H. Block ◽  
Vyash Puliyadi ◽  
Michela Gallagher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Complex Environments ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Age Related Changes

AbstractThere has been considerable focus on investigating age-related memory changes in cognitively healthy older adults, in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders. Previous studies have reported age-related domain-specific changes in older adults, showing increased difficulty encoding and processing object information but minimal to no impairment in processing spatial information compared to younger adults.However, few of these studies have examined age-related changes in the encoding of concurrently presented object and spatial stimuli, specifically the integration of both spatial and non-spatial (object) information. To more closely resemble real-life memory encoding and the integration of both spatial and non-spatial information, the current study developed a new experimental paradigm with novel environments that allowed for the placement of different objects in different positions within the environment. The current findings show that older adults have decreased performance in recognizing changes of the object position within the spatial context but no significant differences in recognizing changes in the identity of the object within the spatial context compared to younger adults. These findings suggest there may be potential age-related differences in the mechanisms underlying the representations of complex environments and furthermore, the integration of spatial and non-spatial information may be differentially processed relative to independent and isolated representations of object and spatial information.

scholarly journals Effects of Computerized Updating and Inhibition Training in Older Adults: The ACTOP Three-Arm Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Boujut ◽  
Lynn Valeyry Verty ◽  
Samantha Maltezos ◽  
Maxime Lussier ◽  
Samira Mellah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Active Control ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Dose Effect ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Transfer Tasks ◽  
Inhibition Training

Background: Working memory (WM) capacity declines with advancing age, which impacts the ability to carry out complex cognitive activities in everyday life. Updating and inhibition processes have been identified as some of the most critical attentional control processes of WM and are linked to age-related WM decline. The general aim of the Attentional Control Training in Older People (ACTOP) study was to perform a side-by-side comparison of updating and inhibition training to examine their respective efficacy and transfer in cognitively healthy older adults.Method: The study was a three-arm, double-blind, randomized controlled trial registered with the US National Institutes of Health clinical trials registry. Ninety older adults were randomly assigned to 12 half-hour sessions of updating (N-back type exercises), inhibition (Stroop-like exercises) computerized training or active control (general knowledge quiz game). A group of thirty younger adults completed all proximal and WM transfer tasks without training to assess age-related deficits prior to training and whether training reduces these deficits.Results: Piecewise mixed models show quick improvement of performance during training for both updating and inhibition training. During updating training, the progression was more pronounced for the most difficult (3-back) than for the least (1-back) difficult level until the ninth session. Updating and inhibition training groups improved performance on all proximal and WM transfer measures but these improvements did not differ from the active control group. Younger adults outperformed older ones on all transfer tasks prior to training. However, this was no longer the case following training for two transfer tasks regardless of the training group.Conclusion: The overall results from this study suggest that attentional control training is effective in improving updating and inhibition performance on training tasks. The optimal dose to achieve efficacy is ~9 half-hour sessions and the dose effect was related to difficulty level for updating training. Despite an overall improvement of older adults on all transfer tasks, neither updating nor inhibition training provided additional improvements in comparison with the active control condition. This suggests that the efficacy of process-based training does not directly affect transfer tasks.Clinical Trial Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03532113

scholarly journals Effects of a Modified Tap Dance Program on Ankle Function and Postural Control in Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 6379
Author(s):  
Qianwen Wang ◽  
Yanan Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Postural Control ◽  
Center Of Pressure ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Plantar Flexion ◽  
Mean Difference ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Tap Dance ◽  
Ankle Function

Older adults are at a high risk of falling due to age-related degradations in physical fitness. This study aimed to examine the effects of a modified tap dance program (MTD) on ankle function and postural control in older adults. Forty-four healthy older adults (mean age = 64.1 years, with 9 men) were recruited from local communities and were randomly divided into the MTD group and the control (CON) group. The MTD group received 12 weeks of MTD training 3 times per week for 30 min per session. Outcomes were measured using the five times sit-to-stand test (FTSST) for ankle strength, the universal goniometer for ankle range of motion, and the Footscan® to trace the center of pressure. Results revealed significant improvements in FTSST in the MTD group (mean difference = 1.01), plantar flexion (left = 9.10, right = 10.0). In addition, the MTD group displayed significantly more improvements at midtest than the CON group in FTSST (mean difference = 1.51) and plantar flexion (mean difference: left = 6.10; right = 4.5). Therefore, the MTD can be an effective exercise program for ankle function improvement, but it has limited effects on improving postural control among healthy older adults.

scholarly journals Few Effects of a 5-week Computerized Cognitive Training Program in Healthy Older Adults

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheida Rabipour ◽  
Cassandra Morrison ◽  
Jessica Crompton ◽  
Marcelo Petrucelli ◽  
Murillo de Oliveira Gonçalves Germano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Computerized Cognitive Training

AbstractComputerized cognitive training programs are becoming increasingly popular and practical for cognitive aging. Nevertheless, basic questions remain about the benefits of such programs, and about the degree to which participant expectations might influence training and transfer. Here we examined a commercial cognitive training program (Activate) in a 5-week double-blind, pseudo-randomized placebo-controlled trial. Based on a priori power analysis, we recruited 99 healthy older adults 59-91 years of age (M = 68.87, SD = 6.31; 69 women), assigning them to either the intervention or an active control program (Sudoku and n-back working memory exercises). We subdivided both groups into high and low expectation priming conditions, to probe for effects of participants’ expectations on training and transfer. We assessed transfer using a battery of standard neuropsychological and psychosocial measures that had been agreed to by the training program developers. We planned and pre-registered our analyses (on osf.io). The majority (88%) of participants progressed through the training, and most provided positive feedback about it. Similarly, the majority (80%) of participants believed they were truly training their brains. Yet, transfer of training was minimal. Also minimal were any effects of expectations on training and transfer, although participants who received high expectation priming tended to engage more with their assigned program overall. Our findings suggest limited benefits ofActivatetraining on cognition and psychosocial wellbeing in healthy older adults, at least under the conditions we used.

scholarly journals The Effect of Behavioral Activation on Older Adults' Engagement and Wellbeing: A Randomized Control Trial Protocol

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 910-910
Author(s):  
Julia Scott ◽  
Alexis Howard ◽  
Mary Luszcz ◽  
Trevor Mazzucchelli ◽  
Ruth Walker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Behavioral Activation ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Psychological Wellbeing ◽  
Therapeutic Approaches ◽  
Activity Engagement ◽  
Positive Psychology Intervention ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Meaningful activity engagement in later life is widely recognized as crucial for ageing well, but age-related changes and transitions can impede such participation. A behavioral activation framework can provide a person-centred, value-consistent therapeutic approach to increasing activity engagement that is both easy to administer, cost effective and accessible to a broad audience. Although there is evidence supporting the utility of behavioral activation as a treatment for depression in older adults, this study will be the first to examine whether a behavioral activation is more effective in increasing activity engagement and psychological wellbeing among a non-clinical sample of older adults, compared to a multi component positive psychology intervention. This randomized controlled trial will examine the impact of two therapeutic approaches on activity engagement and wellbeing among older adults. One hundred and fifty adults aged 65+ who have relatively lower scores on a measure of engagement with life will be randomized to either a behavioral activation-based intervention, or a multi-component positive psychology intervention. The interventions will involve six individual weekly sessions conducted via telephone or video conference. Participants will be assessed pre-, post-intervention, and at three months follow-up. Outcome measures will include activity engagement, positive affect, and psychological wellbeing. Intra-individual variability will also be assessed via micro-longitudinal data in the behavioral activation condition. This study will be the first to provide evidence to the effectiveness of behavioral activation as an intervention to increase activity engagement and wellbeing among older adults, compared to other therapeutic approaches to increase psychological wellbeing.

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