The overarching goal of this pilot clinical trial is to use a novel virtual reality (VR)-based intervention that simultaneously engages physical and cognitive activity aimed at improving brain and cognitive outcomes in older adults. Physical activity is a promising lifestyle intervention for mitigating cognitive decline or delaying onset of dementia. However, to fully leverage beneficial brain effects of physical activity, training the brain to learn and engage in a cognitively stimulating environment may be the key to enhanced brain and cognitive outcomes.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
14
There are three sessions a week for the course of 12 weeks. Each session consists of 5 trials.
Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute of the University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California, United States
Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) brain scan of hippocampal volume (cubic mm)
The hippocampus has been shown to be a selectively vulnerable region in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), and several studies, including our own, identified a dysfunctional brain signal in the hippocampus in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients. We propose to examine the effects of exercise on remediating this hyperactive signal exhibited in MCI patients.
Time frame: 12 weeks
Mnemonic Similarity Task for visual memory performance - discrimination index
With the study's primary focus on hippocampal function, we will use the Mnemonic Separation Task (MST), a hippocampus-dependent discrimination test of similar objects, as our primary cognitive outcome.
Time frame: 12 weeks
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