NCT00526942

Behavioral and Physiological Effects of Visual Training

Computer-Based Cognitive Training in Normal Healthy Aging: Pilot Study of Behavioral and Physiological Effects of Visual Sweeps Training Exercise, 2-Arm Model

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: Phase 1 / Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 54 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Posit Science Corporation · Industry
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the learnability of a 3 week, 40 minutes per day, 5 day per week, computer-based visual training exercise by healthy mature individuals undergoing normal aging.

Detailed description

Virtually all adults will suffer a decline in their cognitive capacities to some degree. Typically, cognitive decline is characterized by a slow, progressive decline in abilities (frequently in memory, attention, inhibition and speed of processing) relative to younger adults, commonly called normal aging, age-associated memory impairment, age-consistent memory impairment, benign senescent forgetfulness, late-life forgetfulness, ageing-associated cognitive decline, and the preferred term, age-related cognitive decline (ARCD) As virtually all adults experience a reduction in their cognitive abilities with age, ARCD has generally been considered to be a normal, inevitable, and irreversible part of aging; and the extremely severe forms of pathological cognitive decline (e.g., Alzheimer's disease, AD) have dominated therapeutic research in this area. However, ARCD represents an important cause of quality of life decline in almost every older adult, as the impact of forgetfulness and mental slowing increasingly change the abilities of individuals to successfully manage their day-to-day activities. Therapeutic approaches targeting the specific problems of ARCD in normal aging (as opposed to the pathological problems of AD) would unto themselves represent important clinical advances. This trial investigates the effects of a computer-based visual training exercise built on the principles of positive brain plasticity and designed for use by healthy mature individuals. The program is specifically designed to improve the fidelity of sensory representations in early visual cortex.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	SAAGE-designed, visual memory-based cognitive training	Training sessions take 40 minutes per day, five days per week for a total goal of 15, 40-minute sessions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2007-08-01
• Completion: 2008-08-01
• First posted: 2007-09-10
• Last updated: 2007-09-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States