Functional anatomy and impact of cognitive training on chunking within working memory in early Alzheimer's disease
| ISRCTN | ISRCTN43007027 |
|---|---|
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN43007027 |
| Secondary identifying numbers | Version 1 (13.7.10); G0901982 |
- Submission date
- 10/12/2010
- Registration date
- 07/02/2011
- Last edited
- 24/10/2016
- Recruitment status
- No longer recruiting
- Overall study status
- Completed
- Condition category
- Nervous System Diseases
Prospectively registered
Protocol
Statistical analysis plan
Results
Individual participant data
Plain English Summary
Not provided at time of registration
Contact information
Dr Jonathan Huntley
Scientific
Scientific
Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park
London
SE5 8AZ
United Kingdom
Study information
| Study design | Randomised controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Primary study design | Interventional |
| Secondary study design | Randomised controlled trial |
| Study setting(s) | Hospital |
| Study type | Quality of life |
| Participant information sheet | Not available in web format, please use the contact details below to request a patient information sheet |
| Scientific title | Functional anatomy and impact of cognitive training on chunking within working memory in early Alzheimer's disease: a randomised controlled trial |
| Study hypothesis | 1. Training individuals with early Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the use of chunking strategies will improve their working memory (WM) capacity 2. Use of chunking strategies in early AD will correlate with significantly increased activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) 3. Following training in chunking, improvement in WM capacity will generalise across different modalities of WM tasks and measures of general cognitive functioning 4. Improvements in WM following cognitive training will be associated with structural and functional re-organisation of brain activity |
| Ethics approval(s) | Cambridgeshire 1 Research Ethics Committee, 21/10/2010, ref: 10/H0304/68 |
| Condition | Early Alzheimer's disease |
| Intervention | Subjects will be randomly allocated to either a cognitive training group or control group. The cognitive training group will undergo 18 days of training over 6 weeks for approximately 45 minutes/day. Each training session will consist of 30 trials of structured span tasks. The length of span will be adjusted after each trial depending on whether it is correctly recalled. Each subject will therefore be continually tested at their span limit, which can adjust both within and across sessions. The control group will perform 30 trials of a 2 span unstructured task over the same time period. After 6 weeks of training, subjects will be reassessed using the baseline battery of tasks, and re-imaged with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) performing the same verbal chunking task protocol. |
| Intervention type | Other |
| Primary outcome measure | 1. Scores on verbal working memory task 2. Cerebral blood flow in the prefrontal and parietal cortices as measured using fMRI Measured at baseline and after 8 weeks (following the 6 week cognitive training intervention). |
| Secondary outcome measures | Scores on: 1. Spatial working memory task 2. Sustained attention, reasoning and episodic memory tasks 3. Artificial grammar task 4. Instrumental activities of daily living (ADL) task Measured at baseline and after 8 weeks (following the 6 week cognitive training intervention). |
| Overall study start date | 20/12/2010 |
| Overall study end date | 05/08/2014 |
Eligibility
| Participant type(s) | Patient |
|---|---|
| Age group | Senior |
| Sex | Both |
| Target number of participants | 30 |
| Participant inclusion criteria | 1. Aged greater than 60 years, either sex 2. Diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease according to National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) criteria 3. Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score greater than 23/30 4. All subjects will be required to provide informed consent to participate in the study |
| Participant exclusion criteria | 1. Co-existent neurological or psychiatric disease 2. Substance misuse 3. Significant auditory or visual impairment |
| Recruitment start date | 20/12/2010 |
| Recruitment end date | 05/08/2014 |
Locations
Countries of recruitment
- England
- United Kingdom
Study participating centre
Institute of Psychiatry
London
SE5 8AZ
United Kingdom
SE5 8AZ
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Institute of Psychiatry (UK)
University/education
University/education
c/o Professor Robert Howard
Kings College London
De Crespigny Park
London
SE5 8AF
England
United Kingdom
| Website | http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/ |
|---|---|
"ROR" |
https://ror.org/0220mzb33 |
Funders
Funder type
Research council
Medical Research Council (MRC) (UK) (ref: G0901982/ ID 93849)
Government organisation / National government
Government organisation / National government
- Alternative name(s)
- Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), UK Medical Research Council, MRC
- Location
- United Kingdom
Results and Publications
| Intention to publish date | |
|---|---|
| Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share | No |
| IPD sharing plan summary | Not provided at time of registration |
| Publication and dissemination plan | Not provided at time of registration |
| IPD sharing plan |
Study outputs
| Output type | Details | Date created | Date added | Peer reviewed? | Patient-facing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results article | results | 01/01/2017 | Yes | No |
Editorial Notes
24/10/2016: Publication reference added.
