Healthy Aging
Conditions
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. .
Detailed description
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
Interventions
OTHERGrammatical Reasoning
START measures the ability to determine the relationships among different shape combinations which are assigned to grammatical statements about them which can be either correct or incorrect. It is a measure of attention, working memory and executive control.
OTHERCard Pairs
A basic picture-matching task.
Sponsors
University of Exeter
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
King's College London
Wesnes Cognition Ltd
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
50 Years to 100 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Adults over 50 * Access to a computer with a keyboard and the internet * Participant registered on the PROTECT study
Exclusion criteria
* Diagnosis of dementia
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Executive Function From Baseline | Baseline to Six weeks | Measured by the validated task-switching test of Trailmaking B. This is a well established computerised test of executive function. On a computer screen participants are presented with 24 circles with either numbers (0-13) or letters (A-L). They must select the circles in the correct numerical and alphabetic order, alternating numbers and letters each time (e.g. 1, A, 2, B, 3, C etc). The test is completed when all the circles have been correctly selected. The test outputs a total score. A higher score indicates a better performance. A negative mean score indicates a decline in performance. The range of scoring for this test is 0 - 300,000. Data reported here are for mean change per group form baseline to six weeks |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Numerical Working Memory From Six Weeks | Baseline to six weeks | Digit Span test for numerical working memory. Partifcipants complete a computerised task. They must remember increasingly long strings of digits and repeat them back. Scores are based on correct responses. Higher score means better performance. Score range is 0 - 20 |
| Change in Working Memory From Baseline | Baseline to six weeks | Measured through a computerised version of the Paired Associate Learning task in which participants must remember the location of a symbol behind a series of boxes on a screen, and accurately identify the correct location when prompted. Scores are based on accuracy. Higher score indicates better performance. Data reported here shows mean change from baseline. Range of scores is 0 - 16 |
| Change in Reaction Time From Baseline | Baseline to six weeks | Measured through a Simple Reaction time test as part of the Wesnes Cognition Ltd CogTrackTM system. Participants are shown a target symbol on the screen and must react by pressing the keyboard / touching the screen (depending on the device being used) when the target appears. Output is measured in milliseconds as a reaction time variable. Lower scores are better; higher scores are worse. Range of scores is 100 - 30,000 |
| Change in Episodic Memory From Baseline | Baseline to six weeks | Measured with the Delayed Picture Recognition task in which participants recall a series of images shown earlier in the cognitive test battery. The test outputs percentage of correct answers as the measure. A higher score shows a better outcome. Range output is 0 - 100 |
| Change in Overall Composite Measure of Global Cognition | Baseline to six weeks | This is a composite measure of overall cognition that is created by normalising the outputs from all other cognitive tests to give a total score out of 100. The data shown here is the change in total score from baseline to six weeks. Range is 0 - 100. A higher score indicates a better outcome |
Countries
United Kingdom
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORAnne Corbett, BSc MRes PhD
University of Exeter Medical School
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | — |
|---|---|
| Age, Continuous | 62.4 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 7.23 |
| Educational Attainment | 3.23 units on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 1.36 |
| Race and Ethnicity Not Collected | 0 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Female | 2617 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Male | 662 Participants |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk | EG001 affected / at risk |
|---|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 3,279 | 0 / 3,265 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 3,279 | 0 / 3,265 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 3,279 | 0 / 3,265 |
Outcome results
None listed