Attentional Control Training in Older Adults: Efficacy, Transfer and Brain Substrates

Overview

Formal education and cognitively stimulating hobbies and profession have a protective effect against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. It is therefore possible that providing cognitively stimulating interventions at a later age increases neuroplasticity and brain resilience. Processes of updating and inhibition are both impaired by aging. Several studies have shown that updating can be improved but very few studies targeted inhibition in spite of the fact that it is impaired in older adults. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of cognitive interventions that will target either of these two components. The investigators will examine the effect on behavior, brain measures and transfer tasks. The investigators will also assess whether the efficacy varies as a function of personal variables such as prior cognitive profile, reserve proxies, genetic polymorphisms and brain markers.

Formal education and cognitively stimulating hobbies and profession have a protective effect against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. The cognitive reserve model suggests that engaging in cognitively stimulating activities may induce brain processes and/or morphological characteristics that make individuals more resilient to the effects of brain damage. It is therefore possible that providing cognitive interventions at a later age amplify similar neuroplastic processes and thus reduce the deleterious effects of aging. Cognitive interventions refer to programs and/or strategies aimed at increasing or optimizing cognitive performance. Many of these programs target working memory (WM), which is defined as the ability to control attention in order to keep information active and accessible. Miyake's influential model proposes that WM relies on the coordinated functioning of a small set of attentional control components. Here the investigators will focus on two of these components: inhibition and updating. Training those two components might reveal critical as they are impaired in aging and subtend a range of more complex cognitive processes. Furthermore, they rely on distinct brain networks and are sensitive to cognitive lifestyle. Several studies have shown that updating capacities of older adults can be improved by cognitive training but very few studies targeted inhibition in spite of the fact that it is severly impaired by aging. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of cognitive interventions that will target either of these two components and compare their effect to that of an active control training. The investigators will examine their effect on behavior, brain measures and transfer tasks. The investigators will also assess whether the efficacy varies as a function of personal variables such as prior cognitive profile, reserve proxies, genetic polymorphisms and brain markers. The investigators will also examine the cumulative effect of training by measuring efficacy at three time points for the proximal outcomes and at five time points for the distal outcomes. Finally, a group of younger adults will be tested at baseline to assess whether training normalize performance, that is, whether the performance of older adults after training is improved to the level of typical young adults. 90 healthy older adults (60-85 years) will be recruited for this study, as well as thirty young adults (20-35 years) who will complete only the initial assessment (PRE). All participants will be recruited from the community and living in the Montreal area. A telephone interview will provide initial selection information. Eligible persons will be invited to come to the laboratory for a standardized clinical and neuropsychological battery in order to evaluate their clinical status and cognitive functioning. The older adults will be randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions (Inhibition, Updating, Active control). Updating will be trained using N-back-like exercises whereas inhibition will be trained with Stroop-like exercises. Different types of stimuli will be used to facilitate transfer. The control intervention will include exercises on general knowledge and vocabulary. All training will be computerized. Training will be provided in 12 half-hours training sessions. Outcome measures will be taken no more than two weeks prior to training (PRE), between Session 6 and 7 (POST1) and no more than one week following Session 12 (POST2). Participants will be trained in small groups of 6 to 10 individuals recruited in about 6 waves. The first two waves will allow to pilot the procedure/team and will be accrued to the whole trial if the training procedure and outcome measures remain unchanged.