The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Age-related Distractibility
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice program, Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Aging, Alzheimer Disease. Basic parameters: 18 years — 75 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- United States
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Losing Specificity: the Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Age-related Distractibility
Overview
A growing body of research has highlighted the importance of frontal regions, at both the functional and structural levels, in age-related declines in attentional and cognitive processing. However, the underlying neurobiological pathophysiological changes in the brain that contribute to these declines are still largely unclear. The objective of this proposal is to investigate neural mechanisms of age-related attentional distractibility, focusing on the neural circuit initiated from the locus coeruleus (LC). In the current proposal, the investigators will test the hypothesis that the neural disconnectivity of LC with the salience network (SN) drives failures of ignoring distractors in older adults. The investigators will examine how LC-SN connectivity is associated with selective attention performance, and how improved LC-SN connectivity through a cognitive training program may lead to improved attentional performance.
Interventions
- Behavioral Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice program
An adaptive at-home tablet-based program that includes variants of the Flanker Task, the Stroop Task, and a Visual Tracking Task. Each session of practice will include up to ten minutes with each of these task types, and the tasks will increase in difficulty in a way that further taxes attention (such as through more distractors or more incongruent trials) as participant performance improves. - Behavioral Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program
An adaptive, at-home tablet-based variant of the criterion task, that is, the selective attention/distraction task used during the scanning portion of the human participant portions of the study, that takes up to 25 minutes to complete each session.
Primary outcome measures
- Change in accuracy on the place-face selective attention task after two weeks [Time frame: Scan before and after attentional practice (2 weeks between scans)]
- Change in fMRI LC-SN connectivity after two weeks [Time frame: Scan before and after attentional practice (2 weeks between scans)]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion:
- Healthy adult participants
- No younger than 18 and no older than 75 yrs of age
- Ability to provide written informed consent
Exclusion:
- History of surgery involving metal implants
- Possible metal fragments in the eyes
- Pacemaker
- A history of claustrophobia
- Braces
- Weighing over 250 pounds
- Pregnant or possibility of being pregnant.
- Severe medical or psychiatric conditions (e.g., blind or deaf, head trauma)
- Learning disabilities or developmental disabilities
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: Yes
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
Study locations
United States · 1 center
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — Blacksburg
Identifiers
NCT: NCT05574634 · 19-514