Online Grammatical Reasoning Training for Older Adults

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy Aging
• Interventions: Other: Card Pairs; Other: Grammatical Reasoning

• Registration Number: NCT03661190
• Lead Sponsor: University of Exeter

Brief Summary

The START study will investigate the impact of playing a Grammatical Reasoning brain training task on overall brain function (cognition) and day-to-day function in people over 50.

The study builds on existing work that has shown very promising results with brain training approaches in older adults. There is good evidence that playing brain training games leads to improvements in brain functions including memory and reasoning. There is also a suggestion that regular involvement in brain training games might help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia later in life. It appears that reasoning, or problem-solving, is particularly important as it is one of the first abilities to decline with age. This study will use this evidence to target reasoning in a specific brain training task. It will also explore the potential role of genetic factors in how people perform in the task.

The study will compare the impact of a Grammatical Reasoning Task (START) with a control task consisting of simple picture-matching. Over 7000 participants will be randomly allocated to either START or the control and will be asked to play the task as often as they wish for a period of six weeks. Both tasks will be delivered entirely online so people will access the study from home on their computers. This will be achieved through our dedicated online research platform, PROTECT, which hosts a cohort of over 20,000 older adults who have provided DNA samples as part of a longitudinal study.

This study will measure the impact of the training on cognition and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. Assessments will be completed online at baseline, two/six weeks and six months. Overall, this study aims to generate exciting new data about how brain training could be included in guidance on healthy ageing.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2017-03-31
• Primary Completion: 2018-05-31
• Study First Submitted: 2018-07-30
• Study First Submitted QC: 2018-09-03
• Study First Posted: 2018-09-07
• Study Completion: 2018-11-30
• Status Verified: 2019-04
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-04-16
• Last Update Posted: 2019-04-17

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 7240

Inclusion Criteria

• Adults over 50
• Access to a computer with a keyboard and the internet
• Participant registered on the PROTECT study

Read More

Exclusion Criteria

• Diagnosis of dementia

Read More

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Control - Card Pairs	Card Pairs	The control group will complete a basic picture-matching task that will provide the same level of engagement, but without the learning effects.
Grammatical Reasoning	Grammatical Reasoning	This group will complete a short-term Intensive Grammatical Reasoning cognitive task delivered online by Wesnes Cognition Ltd (START). Participants will be encouraged to complete the START training once a day for six-weeks.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
A composite measure of cognitive function	Participants will be directed to complete these measures at baseline, two/ six weeks and six months	The primary outcome measure will be a composite measure of cognitive function, created through a combined score of each of the measures described below. The individual measures will be included as discrete secondary outcome measures. All outcome measures will be completed online. They are sensitive to change in cognition, and validated for use in older adults to detect early changes in cognition.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL)	Baseline, two weeks, six weeks and 6 months	Measured by the modified Instrumental Activities of Daily Living measure which is validated for use in this population, and has been successfully used to show change in IADL in previous online brain training studies.
Cognitive function	Baseline, two weeks, six weeks and 6 months	Measured through a Word Recognition test as part of the Wesnes Cognition Ltd CogTrackTM system.
Verbal Learning	Baseline, two weeks, six weeks and 6 months	Measured through the validated Paired Associate Learning measure, which is highly sensitive to change in cognition and has been used to predict conversion to Alzheimer's Disease in people with cognitive impairment.
Use of cognitive training	6 months	Participants will complete a brief question regarding their use of cognitive training (computer games, crosswords, Sudoku etc) and the regularity of use
Executive function	Baseline, two weeks, six weeks and 6 months	Measured by a test of task-switching, the Switching Stroop Test, which is a validated measure for use in this population.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Exeter Medical School; 🇬🇧 Exeter, United Kingdom