NCT01895608

Cognitive Training and Dual-task Ability

Cognitive Training and Dual-task Ability in Older Adults

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 34 (actual)
• Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development · Federal
• Sex: All
• Age: 60 Years – 89 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The first goal of this study is to examine the extent to which the inclusion of dual-task practice to standard balance rehabilitation results in greater benefits to dual-task ability. The second goal of this study is to examine the extent to which the addition of cognitive training following balance rehabilitation results in greater benefits to dual-task ability.

Detailed description

Historically, degradation of balance control in older adults has been attributed to impairments of the motor and/or sensory systems. As a result, therapy has focused on motor and sensory impairments. However, evidence suggests that an impaired ability to allocate attentional resources to balance during dual-task situations is a powerful predictor of falls. Despite this fact, few studies have examined whether interventions can improve older adults' dual-task ability. The goal of this study is to develop effective interventions to improve ability to allocate attention to balance and gait under dual-task conditions. Older adults (n = 44) who have been referred to physical therapy (PT) for gait or balance impairments who have dual-task impairment will be randomized to receive either standard balance rehabilitation or balance rehabilitation with dual-task practice. Following PT, subjects will receive cognitive training (CT), either speed of processing or generalized cognitive training. Primary outcomes are ability to walk while performing four different cognitive tasks of varying difficulty. Assessment will occur at baseline, post-PT, post-CT.

Conditions

• Gait Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Balance rehabilitation + dual-tasking	Balance rehabilitation will involve a structured framework of balance activities that require increasing levels of complexity and multimodal stimuli and response demands with the addition of cognitive tasks, (e.g., counting backwards or reciting lists) to be added when the participant
BEHAVIORAL	Standard balance rehabilitation	Standard balance rehabilitation will involve a structured framework of balance activities that require increasing levels of complexity and multimodal stimuli and response demands.
BEHAVIORAL	Cognitive training (speed of processing)	Speed of processing cognitive training involves systematically increasing the complexity of visual tasks. Task demands are increased by reducing stimulus duration, adding visual or auditory distractors, increasing number of concurrent tasks or increasing the visual field.
BEHAVIORAL	Cognitive training (general cognition)	General cognitive training involves systematic training of 14 key cognitive abilities, including visual scanning, response time, eye-hand coordination, spatial perception, and working memory. Initial starting point is determined by the software using baseline evaluation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2013-07-01
• Primary completion: 2015-09-01
• Completion: 2015-09-01
• First posted: 2013-07-10
• Last updated: 2017-06-19
• Results posted: 2017-06-19

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States