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Mental Strategy Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Sponsor: Jessica Peter
Summary
This study aims to reduce hippocampal activity in people at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aims to examine whether this improves their episodic memory performance. We apply mental strategy trainings with strategies extracted from our previous study that applied real-time fMRI neurofeedback to reduce hippocampal activity. Participants take part in mental strategy trainings 2, 4, or 6 times. At baseline and after each 2 trainings, we assess their hippocampal activity as well as their episodic memory performance using an fMRI pattern separation task. In addition, we will gather blood samples to obtain Apolipoprotein E gene status (ApoE, only once) as well as plasma pTau (pTau217; 4 time-points). ApoE will be included as a covariate in our statistical models. For pTau217, we will calculate the change between each assessment to examine whether the mental strategy training will change the accumulation of pTau217.
Official title: Reducing Hippocampal Hyperactivity in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
60 Years - 80 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
55
Start Date
2024-02-13
Completion Date
2025-10-22
Last Updated
2026-07-22
Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Interventions
Mental Strategy Training
Trainings will be done in groups of up to five people. During training, participants will be presented with an implicit pattern separation task (i.e., for which no response is necessary). At the same time, they will apply mental strategies that were beneficial for hippocampal activity reduction in our previous study. We will use four different mental strategies ("Imagination", "Bodily Perception", "Active Thinking" and "Visual Perception") during each of the training sessions. During imagination participants will need to vividly imagine a scene that exerts a calming effect on them. During "bodily perception" participants will be instruced to focus on their feet or hands while slowly contracting and relaxing them. During active thinking they will perform cognitive tasks such as reciting the alphabet or counting. During visual perception they will focus on a specific part of the presented image. The order of the mental strategies is similar for all participants and all trainings.
Locations (1)
Universitäre Psychiatrische Dienste Bern
Bern, Canton of Bern, Switzerland