Brain Changes With Game Training in Aging (BrainGame)

The purpose is to use MRI to investigate brain changes associated with playing a race car video game for 90 minutes in aging adults both with and without early signs of dementia.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dementia; Aging
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Race Car Video Game

Detailed Description

Neuroplasticity is an important process associated with memory and learning, and may be impaired in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). Video games are one potential strategy for investigating adaptive cognitive learning. Recent neuroimaging studies in healthy young adults have been able to detect brain changes associated with learning and memory from a racing video game over relatively short training periods of a couple hours. This strategy offers significant promise for characterizing the potential for neuroplasticity in patients at risk for AD including amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI).

This project will apply video game training with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning to investigate adaptive learning, working memory and neuroplasticity as a function of aging and in patients with aMCI. A total of forty participants will be studied. Twenty subjects will undergo the video game training. Twenty subjects will be passive controls.

Specific Aims:

To characterize the microstructural brain changes after video game training in aging subjects and determine how patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) and early AD are affected. For this study, adult participants ages 50 and older including patients with aMCI and early AD will undergo two neuroimaging sessions spaced roughly two hours apart that are bracketed around roughly 90 minutes of car racing game play. We will use diffusion-weighted imaging to detect longitudinal changes in microstructure of the hippocampus and parahippocampus. A primary objective of this study is to demonstrate that these training and imaging methods are translatable to patients with MCI. We will investigate the following two important hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1: Following car racing video game play, participants, on average, will demonstrate significant microstructural changes in hippocampal and parahippocampal brain regions measured with MRI.

Hypothesis 2: The microstructural changes in the hippocampus and parahippocampus measured with MRI will be significantly correlated with (a) cognitive memory performance as assessed by recent memory assessments, and (b) improvements in video game performance in all participants.

The primary outcome measures for both Hypotheses are the changes in the MRI measurements following car racing video game play.

A long-term objective of this project is to determine whether imaging short term neuroplasticity is predictive for individual patients of either future conversion to AD or the effectiveness of cognitive training therapies. More generally, neuroimaging markers of learning-induced brain plasticity would provide extremely useful tools for investigations of aging, dementias, and neurodegenerative diseases.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 20
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Wisconsin
    • Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53705
      • University of Wisconsin - Madison

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 50 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. 50-80 years of age
2. Part of existing aging research sample cohorts at University of Wisconsin - Madison
3. Successful research MRI study within prior two years

4. May include participants with

   1. No diagnosed cognitive impairment
   2. amnestic MCI
   3. mild AD (single or multi-domain) with predominant amnesia

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Contraindications to MRI (see Risks of MRI below)
2. Significant experience with playing race car video games in previous 2 years.
3. Severe AD
4. Lack of capacity as determined by the Capacity Assessment of Understanding questionnaire
5. Women who may be pregnant

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Game Players; Participants that will play video game	Behavioral: Race Car Video Game; Repeatedly playing a race car video game
No Intervention: Control; No video game experience

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
MRI: Mean Diffusivity	MRI based Mean Diffusivity changes in brain following playing video game for 90 minutes	1.5-2 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
MRI: Structural Morphometry	Local brain volumetric or shape changes	1.5-2 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Andrew Alexander, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 15, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 15, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): August 15, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 1, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 1, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): July 3, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 10, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neurocognitive Disorders; Dementia
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2014-1036