Cognitive Impairment Clinical Trials

The proposed project aims to establish the feasibility and tolerability of delivering repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulant (rTMS) combined with computerized cognitive training in patients with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder and cognitive difficulties. The investigators will conduct a 2 week randomized controlled trial study evaluating computerized cognitive training combined with either active or sham rTMS on cognitive and functional outcomes in adults with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder. Read Less

This study examines a home-based computerized cognitive rehabilitation intervention in adults with multiple sclerosis compared to placebo (videogame). Patients are assessed through pre-and post neuropsychological testing. Read Less

The purpose of this research study is to understand the factors that underlie changes in thinking and memory with increasing age. The investigators will test the usefulness of MRI, PET, and cognitive testing in detecting subtle changes in the brain that precede cognitive decline. An addendum to this study includes additional PET scans to examine the relationship between tau protein in the brain and cognitive decline. Tau is a protein that is known to form tangles in the areas of the brain important for memory, and these tau tangles are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. This sub-study research aims to look at the tau accumulation in the brain using an investigational drug called MK-6240, which is a radio tracer that gets injected prior to a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Read Less

The study utilizes investigational software, the SPARK Test, with an FDA-cleared electroencephalography (EEG) amplifier and EEG cap to collect and then analyze patient EEG data. Read Less

Loss of independence, cognitive decline, and difficulties in everyday function are areas of great concern for older adults and their families. Cognitive training is one low cost, noninvasive training intervention that has repeatedly demonstrated reliable transfer effects to maintained cognition, everyday function, health, and most recently, a 29% reduction in incident dementia. Importantly, many of these everyday function effects are maintained across five to ten years including: maintained driving mobility, 50% reduction in at-fault vehicle crashes, and maintained Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL). Although clearly an important and effective intervention, the moderators and mechanisms underlying this program are unknown. The overall objective in this planning grant is to lay the conceptual and methodological foundation to explore cognitive, psychosocial, lifestyle behaviors, and biomarker mechanisms and moderators of two forms of conceptually driven cognitive training. Additionally, this study will examine how cognitive and psychosocial factors within daily life account for the transfer of cognitive training to everyday function. We will use a factorial design to randomize adults ages 55-85 to 0, 10, 20, 30, or 40 hours of two forms of cognitive training, a combined training, or an active comparison condition (Phase 1). An additional sample of participants will complete 20 hours of two forms of cognitive training or the active comparison group as well as provide blood samples (Phase 2). Across the study period, participants will complete cognitive, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial assessments at baseline, posttest, and approximately three month follow-up assessments in person or remotely using a study-provided laptop. Additionally, all participants will be asked to complete daily cognitive, health, lifestyle, and psychosocial measures daily using study-provided smartphones. This study will allow us to test the feasibility of our enrollment, assessment and training protocols for a future multisite clinical trial. This exploratory study is the first of its kind and will be used to provide important data relevant to a future larger randomized controlled trial examining mediators of cognitive training in a representative sample of adults. This information will assist in the future development of more effective home- and community-based interventions that maintain everyday function. Read Less

The study is designed to determine whether encapsulated fruit and vegetable juice concentrates can improve biological indicators of cognitive and multiple dimensions of memory and learning. Read Less

This research will test the hypothesis that immune system disequilibrium / dysfunction explains why preoperative cognitive impairment is a strong predictor of postoperative morbidity in older surgical patients. The investigators propose that cognitive impairment influences surgical morbidity because of underlying immune disequilibrium / dysfunction (risk marker) and that this shapes the immune response to surgery and defines immunological hallmarks of postoperative morbidity (disease marker). The overarching goal of this application therefore is to define and better understand the clinical immunology underlying the relationship between cognition and geriatric surgical morbidity. Read Less