Targeted Physical and Cognitive Activity in a VR Environment in Older Adults at Risk for Alzheimer's Disease

在 VR 环境中对有阿尔茨海默病风险的老年人进行有针对性的身体和认知活动

• 批准号: 10834437
• 负责人: Judy Pa
• 金额: $ 4.15万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10834437
• 关键词: Affect; Alzheimer' s Disease; Alzheimer' s disease risk; Brain; Cognition; Cognitive; Coupled; Dementia; Discipline; Disease; Elderly; Environment; Exercise; Functional disorder; Goals; Health; Hippocampus; Impaired cognition; Individual; Intervention; Learning; Literature; Memory; Neurosciences; Persons; Populations at Risk; Randomized; Technology; Time; Training; active control; blood-based biomarker; brain health; effective therapy; exercise intensity; improved; interest; lifestyle intervention; mild cognitive impairment; novel; pharmacologic; physical conditioning; prevent; programs; recruit; sobriety; spatial memory; vigorous intensity; virtual reality; virtual reality environment; virtual reality intervention

PROJECT SUMMARY The overarching goal of this project is to use a novel virtual reality (VR) physical and cognitive intervention aimed at improving brain health and cognition in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is the most common cause of cognitive impairment in older adults and affects 36 million people worldwide. Results from several large pharmacological trials have been sobering with no effective treatments for halting, slowing, or preventing the disease. Exercise has emerged as an exciting, lifestyle intervention to help mitigate cognitive loss or delay the onset of dementia. However, to fully leverage exercise benefits in this at-risk population, training the brain to learn and engage in a cognitively- stimulating and physically-demanding environment may be key to effective therapies. Controlled cognitively- challenging environments created in a VR setting provide an adaptable and safe environment for improving cognitive dysfunction in older adults at risk for AD. While a large body of literature has found that exercise enhances cognition, very few studies have coupled physical and cognitive activity in a VR environment, simultaneously. By engaging and challenging spatial memory during moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise over time, memories for newly acquired information may be stronger and longer-lasting than either physical or cognitive activity alone. Therefore, in this project, we aim to use an integrated, ecologically valid, and meaningful physical and cognitive intervention in VR that targets the hippocampus, a key region of interest in older adults at risk for AD. We will recruit and randomize 150 older adults to participate in the intervention (combined physical and cognitive VR program), active control (physical cycling only), or passive control (cognitive VR only) group to investigate changes in cognition, brain function, blood-based biomarkers, and physical health in old adults (55-80 years old) with early mild cognitive impairment. Results from this study will provide new evidence for the benefits of a novel combined VR intervention that target physical and cognitive health, simultaneously.

项目摘要 该项目的总体目标是使用新颖的虚拟现实（VR）物理和认知 干预旨在改善轻度认知障碍的老年人的大脑健康和认知 （MCI），阿尔茨海默氏病（AD）的危险因素。广告是认知障碍的最常见原因 老年人，影响全球3600万人。几项大型药物试验的结果已经 没有有效的治疗方法来停止，放慢或预防疾病。运动已经出现 令人兴奋的生活方式干预措施，有助于减轻认知损失或延迟痴呆症的发作。但是，要充分 利用这种高危人群中的运动益处，训练大脑学习和从事认知 - 刺激和物理需求的环境可能是有效疗法的关键。受控的 在VR环境中创建的挑战性环境提供了一个适应性和安全的环境，以改善 老年人的认知功能障碍有AD的风险。虽然大量文献发现运动 增强认知，很少有研究在VR环境中耦合身体和认知活动， 相似地。通过参与和挑战现代性强度练习期间的空间记忆 随着时间的流逝，新获取信息的回忆可能比物理或物理的记忆更强烈，更持久 仅认知活动。 因此，在这个项目中，我们旨在使用综合，生态有效且有意义的身体和 针对海马的认知干预VR，这是海马的关键区域，这是老年人有AD风险的关键区域。 我们将招募和随机分配150名老年人参加干预措施（合并的身体和认知 VR程序），主动控制（仅物理循环）或被动控制（仅认知VR）组进行调查 老年人的认知，脑功能，基于血液的生物标志物和身体健康的变化（55-80岁） 患有早期轻度认知障碍。这项研究的结果将为新颖的新证据提供新的证据 简单地将靶向身体和认知健康的VR干预措施结合在一起。