Virtual Reality Study - COVID-19 Protocol (NRVR)

University of Southern California

Status: Completed

Conditions: Healthy Aging

Treatments: Behavioral: Physical and Cognitive Activity

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04678778

HS17-00354

Details and patient eligibility

About

The overarching goal of this pilot clinical trial is to use a novel virtual reality (VR)-based intervention that simultaneously engages physical and cognitive activity aimed at improving brain and cognitive outcomes in older adults. Physical activity is a promising lifestyle intervention for mitigating cognitive decline or delaying onset of dementia. However, to fully leverage beneficial brain effects of physical activity, training the brain to learn and engage in a cognitively stimulating environment may be the key to enhanced brain and cognitive outcomes.

Enrollment: 14 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50 to 85 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 50-85 Years Old
• Able to Walk Without Assistance
• Fluent in English
• No Ferromagnetic Metal in Body
• Able to Participate in Moderate Aerobic Physical Activity

Exclusion criteria

• Severe Brain Injury/ Head Trauma
• Pacemakers or Metal Implants
• Claustrophobia
• Contradictions to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)/ Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Brain Scans
• Opposition to Blood Draws

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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14 participants in 1 patient group

Combined, simultaneous physical and cognitive activity

Experimental group

Description:

The combined physical and cognitive activity VR arm will participate in our customized spatial navigation program that increases difficulty and length per trial over time. As described in the Game Design section, each session will consist of 5 trials. The first trial will be a long-delay free recall condition from the previous day's path. The next 4 trials will consist of learning, cued recall, and free recall. This VR-based spatial navigation program has been tested in our feasibility trial for safety and tolerability in older adults.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Physical and Cognitive Activity