The Role of the Locus Coeruleus in Age-related Distractibility

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Aging; Alzheimer Disease

Treatments: Behavioral: Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice program; Behavioral: Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05574634

19-514

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 200 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 75 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion:

• Healthy adult participants
• No younger than 18 and no older than 75 yrs of age
• Ability to provide written informed consent

Exclusion:

• History of surgery involving metal implants
• Possible metal fragments in the eyes
• Pacemaker
• A history of claustrophobia
• Braces
• Weighing over 250 pounds
• Pregnant or possibility of being pregnant.
• Severe medical or psychiatric conditions (e.g., blind or deaf, head trauma)
• Learning disabilities or developmental disabilities

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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200 participants in 2 patient groups

Older adult participants

Experimental group

Description:

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

Treatment:

Behavioral: Tablet based adaptive criterion task practice program

Behavioral: Tablet based adaptive multimodal attention practice program

Younger adult participants

No Intervention group

Description:

Younger adult participants in the study will complete one fMRI scan session featuring an attention task