NCT00431223

Brain Activation Patterns in Schizophrenia After Computerized Cognitive Skills Training

Does Computerized Cognitive Skills Training Change Brain Activation Patterns in Schizophrenia?

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 11 (actual)
• Sponsor: Manhattan Psychiatric Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: Male
• Age: 18 Years – 55 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This project is a novel exploratory research project to investigate changes in activation patterns of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in inpatients with schizophrenia who received a 12-week computerized cognitive remediation (CRT) program. The hypothesis is that patients receiving CRT will show greater increase in activation patterns in the brain as compared to controls, and the degree of brain activation will correlate with improvements in working memory.

Detailed description

Abnormalities in the domains of attention, working memory (WM) and information processing are important features of schizophrenia. There is growing literature that cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) can produce modest improvements in cognitive functioning in schizophrenia, suggesting that systematic efforts at improving cognitive functioning are feasible. Cognitive improvement after CRT may correlate with changes in brain activation patterns in specific areas. After screening, patients are randomized to a 12 week trial of CRT using COGPACK (Marker Software), or to a 12-week control condition. All patients attend 3 weekly 1-hour laboratory sessions, with 1 discussion session per week. Patients continue their antipsychotic treatment with a typical or atypical antipsychotic during the CRT and 4 weeks prior to enrollment in the study (Phase A). Following Phase A they receive baseline evaluations, including an cognitive activation task (N-back visual-letter task) while being scanned for fMRI , MATRICS neuropsychological test battery, and psychiatric, social functioning, and symptoms assessment. Patients then enter Phase B with randomization to control or CRT for 12 weeks (36 laboratory sessions). Upon successful completion of 36 sessions, endpoint evaluations include an N-back task while fMRI scan, MATRICS, psychiatric, and social functional assessments. All baseline and endpoint fMRI scans are conducted at the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI) at Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research.

Conditions

• Schizophrenia

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Cognitive remediation therapy	36 sessions of computerized cognitive skills training over a 12 week duration. 7 patients were assigned to cognitive remediation therapy or CRT Group.

Timeline

• Start date: 2006-09-01
• Primary completion: 2008-09-01
• Completion: 2008-09-01
• First posted: 2007-02-05
• Last updated: 2020-10-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States