Emotion Study/Substudy: Flexible Brain Study

Not Applicable

Completed

Interventions: Behavioral: Anterior cingulate cortex activation
Behavioral: Primary auditory cortex activation

Brief Summary: The proposed research applies the highly innovative technology of real-time functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtfMRI) to examine plasticity of brain-regulatory mechanisms related to cognitive and affective processing and to determine benefits for cognition and affect in young and older adults and in Parkinson Disease (PD) patients.

Detailed Description: There is increasing evidence that age-related alterations in brain function associated with affective processing and attention contribute to these motivational and emotional changes with age.

Based on these theoretical considerations as well as the previous study's data, the proposed research will apply well-tested emotion processing and attention paradigms to address the pivotal question of whether brain activity can be modulated in healthy aging and PD (in the substudy) via contingent rt-fMRI neurofeedback and whether this neuroregulatory modulation increases emotion processing and cognitive performance.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

Young adults

aged 18-35 years of age
native English speaker
at least 8th grade education
generally physically and neurologically healthy as determined by the Health Demographics Screener
eligible for MRI as determined by the MRI Eligibility Interview (including not being pregnant)
scores within normal limits on a cognitive screener (MoCA)
no indication of serious psychiatric disturbance including major depression (based on Mental Health Screener)
willing and able to give informed consent

Inclusion Criteria: Older adults

age 55-100 years of age
native English speaker
at least 8th grade education
generally physically and neurologically healthy as determined by the Health Demographics Screener
eligible for MRI as determined by the MRI Eligibility Interview
no indication of dementia based on score of 30 or above on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status and nonimpaired score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA -- score of 22 and above)
no indication of serious psychiatric disturbance including current major depression (based on Mental Health Screener)
willing and able to give informed consent

Inclusion Criteria: Parkinson patients

must meet criteria for diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson disease according the UK Brain Bank by a movement trained neurologist.
age 55-100 years of age
native English speaker
at least 8th grade education
generally physically and neurologically healthy other than Parkinson disease
eligible for MRI as determined by the MRI Eligibility Interview
no indication of dementia based on cognitive screening measures (TICS -- score of 30 or above, and MoCa -- score of 22 and above)
no indication of serious psychiatric disturbance including current major depression
willing and able to give informed consent

Inclusion Criteria: Individuals with SCD and a family history of dementia or Alzheimer's disease

age 55-100 years of age
native English speaker
at least 8th grade education
generally physically and neurologically healthy as determined by the Health Demographics Screener
eligible for MRI as determined by the MRI Eligibility Interview
no indication of dementia based on score of 30 or above on the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status and nonimpaired score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA -- score of 22 and above)
no indication of serious psychiatric disturbance including current major depression (based on Mental Health Screener)
willing and able to give informed consent
community-dwelling with subjective report of cognitive complaints with scores >16 on the Cognitive Change Index (CCI-20)
no evidence of dementia or mild cognitive impairment based on cognitive screening using the MoCA; scores must fall within normal limits for age, education, and sex
no psychometric evidence of neuropsychological impairment on a modified Neuropsychological Battery from the NACC Unified Data Set, version 3
score of 0 on the Global Clinic Dementia Rating (CDR) scale
normal functional behavior in terms of daily activities, based on the Functional Activities Scale (FAQ)
availability of an informant (over the phone) who can provide information about the participant's complaints using the informant version of the CCI-20, and corroborate normal activities of daily living on the FAQ and the CDR scale.

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Healthy Younger Group	Anterior cingulate cortex activation	Participants will receive rt-fMRI training to increase anterior cingulate cortex activation.
Healthy Older Group	Anterior cingulate cortex activation	Participants will receive rt-fMRI training to increase anterior cingulate cortex activation.
Parkinson Disease Group	Anterior cingulate cortex activation	Participants will receive rt-fMRI training to increase anterior cingulate cortex activation.
Control Group	Primary auditory cortex activation	Participants will receive rt-fMRI training to increase primary auditory cortex activation.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in BOLD signal response	Baseline; Day 8	Change in blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal response of the anterior cingulate cortex.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method