Noradrenergic Activity and Attention (NAA)

The Influence of Noradrenergic Activity on Attentional Control in Younger and Older Adults

Older adults demonstrate increased distractibility by task-irrelevant information which contributes to general cognitive impairment. However, it is yet unclear how changes in noradrenergic activity during aging influences attentional control. In the current study, tonic noradrenergic activity will be increased or decreased to investigate its behavioral and neural effects on attentional control.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Aging

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 100

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Andy Kim, PhD; Phone Number: 213-740-5156; Email: andyk@usc.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Los Angeles, California, United States, 90089
      • Recruiting
      • USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
      • Contact: Wendy Snaer; Phone Number: 213-821-4643; Email: wsnaer@usc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Young adults will be recruited from the student population at the University of Southern California. Older adults will be recruited from a volunteer registry.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Fluent in English
• Aged between 18-35 or 50-80
• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing, and normal color vision
• Have a mobile phone and email address

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-English speakers
• Currently practicing any relaxation, meditation, or breathing technique for more than an hour per week
• Have participated in studies measuring attentional capture in the past year
• Experiencing symptoms of dementia

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Young Adults; Young Adults aged 18-35
Older Adults; Older Adults aged 50-80

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Initial eye-movements toward target and distractor shapes measured by an eye-tracker	The oculomotor suppression effect is a lower likelihood that salient display items will be the target of the initial eye movement in a visual search task compared to nonsalient display items. Using an eye-tracker, initial fixations toward the target, salient distractor, and nonsalient distractors will be compared as a measure of attentional control.	Calculated once at the end of the 1 day experiment

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern California

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): November 1, 2023
• Study Completion (Anticipated): November 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 13, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 3, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): November 15, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 27, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 23, 2022
• Last Verified: September 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: attention; arousal
• Other Study ID Numbers: UP-21-00711

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: At the conclusion of the study, data in de-identified form will be shared using the Open Science Framework and/or OpenNeuro Databases which are free and open platforms for sharing and archiving scientific data.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be made available at the end of the experiment, indefinitely.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data will be uploaded to scientific data archiving platforms.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No