Mild Cognitive Impairment Clinical Trials

Electrical activity in the brain known as "gamma" brainwaves help connect and process information throughout the brain. These gamma waves are diminished in Alzheimer's disease. New research in Alzheimer's disease mouse models shows that exposure to light flickering at the rate of 40 flashes per second or 40Hz increased gamma brainwaves and led to clearing of beta amyloid plaques in the brain, a key abnormality in Alzheimer's disease. This project will test the ability of a novel iPad App (AlzLife https://www.alz.life/) that delivers light therapy at 40 Hz combined with cognitive therapy to improve cognition, function, and quality of life in Alzheimer's disease. Read Less

The Boston Cognitive Assessment (BoCA) is a self-administered online test intended for longitudinal cognitive monitoring. BoCA uses random not-repeating tasks to minimize learning effects. BoCA was developed to evaluate the effects of treatment in longitudinal clinical trials and available gratis to individuals and professionals. Read Less

This study will conduct a group randomized trial to test the effects of a hula-based intervention in improving vascular risk factors for ADRD and cognitive complaints and function over 12 months. Read Less

This study compares different music therapy (MT) experiences and their impact on memory and language in patients with Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. The 12-month study will assess the role of common experiences involving familiar music and other pleasant events (blinded control) to benefit cognition and measure the quality of life for people with Alzheimer's disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Following screening, all participants will meet with a licensed music therapist at the first study visit. Thereafter, each group will have an individualized schedule of follow-up telephone calls and visits. Screening for the study and participation in the study intervention can be completed in-person or from your home, if you do not live in the area. Read Less

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment are often physically inactive and at risk for progressing to dementia. Physical inactivity is considered a modifiable risk factor for dementia. Therefore, interventions must be developed to foster sustainable improvement in daily physical activity. To address this problem, our pilot study aims are directed at assessing the feasibility and preliminary improvement of physical activity following the use of a mobile-health technology physical activity behavior change intervention. Similar interventions have shown to be very effective in older adults without cognitive impairment. We specifically focus on the subtype of amnestic mild cognitive impairment since this subtype often progresses to Alzheimer's Disease, a leading cause of death in the US. Improving physical activity is one approach to reduce the progression to Alzheimer's Disease and subsequently lower mortality. To increase the impact of the intervention, participants with amnestic mild cognitive impairment will be recruited along with a primary caregiver (dyads). Thirty dyads will be recruited and randomized to either an intervention group (15 dyads) or usual care group (15 dyads). The intervention group will receive a 12-week mobile-health technology physical activity behavior change intervention structured to improve physical activity. The intervention is unique in the combination of established behavior change theories and techniques and remote delivery for individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. This pilot study is designed to assess the feasibility of the intervention by examining participant and primary caregiver retention, intervention session attendance, intervention acceptability and safety, and qualitative perspectives. Secondly, this pilot study will assess preliminary improvement in physical activity (i.e., daily steps). Improvement will be determined based on significant changes in participants' daily steps observed via accelerometry post-intervention in the intervention group compared to the usual care control group. The results of this study will support future work (K-award and R01 submissions) to explore efficacy and larger-scale implementation to reach rural and underserved areas of Nebraska and beyond. Read Less

The Interventions for Brain Health Virtual Reality Study is a NIH-funded clinical research trial at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Health under the supervision of the study principal investigator Dr. Judy Pa. The overarching goal of this trial is to use a novel virtual reality (VR) based intervention that simultaneously engages physical and cognitive activity aimed at improving brain health and cognition in older adults. The investigators will compare 3 types of interventions: physical activity, VR cognitive activity, and combined VR physical and cognitive activity over 16 weeks to evaluate physical and brain health changes. Read Less

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias lead to marked declines in daily functioning, independence, and quality of life. One of the earliest cognitive changes in these conditions is impairment in prospective memory, or the ability to remember future intentions such as taking medications at a given time. Prior intervention studies that targeted prospective memory used mnemonic strategies or cognitive training, but these approaches resulted in modest gains in clinical populations. By contrast, a Stage I pilot trial indicated that smartphone-based memory aids (reminder apps) can be accepted and used by persons with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia to improve both subjective and objective prospective memory performance. The investigators will now test for efficacy, durability, and generalizability of benefits across diverse samples in a Stage II randomized controlled trial. Some 200 participants with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia will be recruited, half of whom will be from digitally-disadvantaged backgrounds (low socioeconomic status, rural, or historically underrepresented groups). Participants will complete baseline assessments and then be randomly assigned to a smartphone reminder app intervention or an active control condition that uses a paper- based memory support system. Across a 4-week intervention period, participants will complete patient-selected and experimenter-assigned prospective memory assessments and receive booster training sessions to promote self-efficacy with the intervention/control system. Durability of effects will be assessed at 3-month and 6-month follow-up sessions. As a secondary aim, study partners will be simultaneously enrolled to collect informant ratings, track how much study partners assist the participants, and determine whether improving prospective memory in patients improves quality of life in study partners (e.g., by reducing the double to-do list burden of remembering for themselves and for care recipients). As a third aim, the investigators will identify barriers and facilitators to smartphone interventions in digitally-disadvantaged individuals who have historically been underrepresented in technology and dementia research. Read Less

Efficient and user-friendly paradigms to detect cognitive impairment, including dementia are needed in primary care. The TabCAT Brain Health Assessment accurately detects cognitive impairment via an appealing tablet interface with automated scoring and EMR integration. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of the paradigm on detection rates and other brain health outcomes via a pragmatic cluster randomized trial in 26 Kaiser Southern California primary care clinics. Read Less

(JUSTIFICATION: This is the R33 stage of an NIH funded R21/R33 study. R21 stage (IRB-61727) was focused on intervention development; R33 stage will focus on pilot testing the effect of the intervention. The R21 phase was not considered a NIH defined clinical trial; R33 will be considered a NIH defined clinical trial) The purpose is to develop and test the effect of a "personalized" computer-based cognitive training program. The personalized program tailors the difficulty of the training tasks using a participant's biofeedback (i.e., heart rate) and cognitive performance. Such a personalization will ensure that the participant can perform at his/her ideal training capacity. Participants will be randomized into one of 2 groups and each group will play a different version of computerized training game and have ECG collected to allow subject blinding. Read Less

New IDEAS is an observational, open-label, longitudinal cohort study designed to address the requirements of the CED provisions of the NCD on beta-amyloid PET. Building on the initial Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study, New IDEAS will evaluate the association between amyloid PET and patient-centered outcomes in an expanded and more ethnoracially and clinically diverse group of Medicare participants presenting with cognitive impairment. Read Less

This randomized controlled trial will evaluate the impact of an Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) intervention on sleep and the extent to which it contributes to cognitive health in individuals with mild cognitive impairment. Participants with insomnia who meet the study criteria for mild cognitive impairment will be recruited to determine the effects of the CBT-I intervention compared to a patient education condition on sleep and cognition. Internet-based recruitment methods will be used, and outcomes include sleep variables, daytime variables, and cognitive status. Read Less

This is a proof of concept observational study is to determine if there is correlation between Aβ plaques and vascular findings in the Retina versus brain ARIA. Read Less