The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Age-related Distractibility
- Conditions
- AgingAlzheimer Disease
- Interventions
- Behavioral: Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice programBehavioral: Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program
- Registration Number
- NCT05574634
- Brief Summary
A growing body of research has highlighted the importance of frontal regions, at both the functional and structural levels, in age-related declines in attentional and cognitive processing. However, the underlying neurobiological pathophysiological changes in the brain that contribute to these declines are still largely unclear. The objective of this proposal is to investigate neural mechanisms of age-related attentional distractibility, focusing on the neural circuit initiated from the locus coeruleus (LC). In the current proposal, the investigators will test the hypothesis that the neural disconnectivity of LC with the salience network (SN) drives failures of ignoring distractors in older adults. The investigators will examine how LC-SN connectivity is associated with selective attention performance, and how improved LC-SN connectivity through a cognitive training program may lead to improved attentional performance.
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- RECRUITING
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 200
Not provided
Not provided
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Older adult participants Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice program Older adult participants in the study will complete one of two variants of an attention practice program and that will be preceded by, and followed by, an fMRI scan session featuring an attention task Older adult participants Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program Older adult participants in the study will complete one of two variants of an attention practice program and that will be preceded by, and followed by, an fMRI scan session featuring an attention task
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Change in fMRI LC-SN connectivity after two weeks Scan before and after attentional practice (2 weeks between scans) An fMRI measure of LC-SN connectivity
Change in accuracy on the place-face selective attention task after two weeks Scan before and after attentional practice (2 weeks between scans) During this task, participants will be presented to with target place stimuli overlaid on nonexpressive faces) and be asked to identify categories of place images ('building' to 'house') selectively as soon as possible while ignoring overlapped faces. The investigators will also include place only images to measure participants' baseline neural activation when there is no distractor. Each image condition will be presented in a mixed event related design that includes 15 blocks for each condition as a function of image type (overlaid vs. place-only). The block order will be counterbalanced and each block will be separated by a 10-s blank screen.
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
🇺🇸Blacksburg, Virginia, United States