Examining the contributions of placebo effects in cognitive training

检查安慰剂效应在认知训练中的贡献

基本信息

批准号：
10390772
负责人：
CHRISTOPHER S GREEN
金额：
$ 66.46万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-06-01 至 2027-05-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10390772
关键词：
Address Adult Age Age-associated memory impairment Alzheimer&apos s disease related dementia Applied Research Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Automobile Driving Basic Science Belief Benchmarking Blinded Characteristics Cognition Cognitive Critiques Data Data Set Development Disease Drug Controls Elderly Evaluation Foundations Funding Future Health Heterogeneity Individual Individual Differences Industry Intelligence Intervention Journals Knowledge Liquid substance Manuscripts Measures Methods Mission National Institute of Drug Abuse National Institute of Mental Health National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Outcome Outcome Measure Participant Performance Personality Personality Traits Persons Pharmacologic Substance Placebo Effect Placebos Plant Roots Play Population Process Production Protocols documentation Psyche structure Public Health Published Comment Research Research Design Research Personnel Research Project Grants Risk Role Route Running Sample Size Schizophrenia Short-Term Memory Site Solid Suggestion Symptoms Task Performances Testing Training Translating Translational Regulation Treatment Protocols United States National Institutes of Health Work active control age group attentional control base blind classical conditioning cognitive ability cognitive benefits cognitive enhancement cognitive function cognitive process cognitive task cognitive training cohort design disability burden effective intervention expectation experience fitness flexibility improved learning strategy middle age optimism prevent research study selective attention stem trait young adult

项目摘要

Project Summary/Abstract This project addresses fundamental controversies regarding the extent to which benefits of cognitive training may reflect, at least in part, placebo effects. Cognitive training is increasingly studied and applied as a potential approach to enhance cognitive capabilities in healthy young-to-middle-age adults as well to ameliorate and/or prevent age-related cognitive decline in individuals that may be at risk for developing ADRD. While extant data suggest that well-designed cognitive training paradigms can produce positive real-world change in cognitive functions, some researchers have suggested that the positive effects attributed to cognitive training may, in fact, reflect placebo effects. This criticism stems from the fact that, in even the best designed cognitive training studies, participants cannot be truly blinded to condition. While many cognitive training studies attempt to blind participants to the intent or purpose of the training (e.g., using an inert control training that participants might find plausible as an active intervention), because such control training experiences necessarily differ in key ways from the active training experiences, it has nevertheless been suggested that participants in cognitive training studies are able to intuit their condition and associated expectations and then show outcomes that are rooted purely in these expectations. Despite this suggestion appearing frequently in commentaries over the past several years, there exists little empirical work that directly addresses whether placebo effects may be at play in cognitive training and whether such effects can be of a magnitude that explains previous results in the field. Here we propose to overcome this fundamental gap in the field with a large-scale research study designed to explicitly examine placebo effects in cognitive training. In particular, taking lessons from outside domains that have more rigorously examined the induction of placebo effects, we utilize both “pure expectation” methods (i.e., verbally telling participants that an inert training protocol will enhance their cognitive functions) and “associative learning” methods (i.e., pairing training with subjectively experienced improved performance) in the attempt to purposefully drive maximal amplitude placebo effects. This will not only serve to resolve the proximal controversy regarding whether placebo effects in the domain, but if such effects are found, it will serve as a benchmark for future research (e.g., to potentially harness such effects). We will examine how the size of such effects may differ across age groups (younger and older adults), across cognitive domains (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory, selective attention), and across testing contexts (in-lab versus remote). Finally, as outside domains have shown that there can be individual differences in the extent of placebo-responsiveness, we will also examine a set of individual difference variables (e.g., personality) as possible moderators for these differences. This research will provide a unique and foundational dataset that addresses directly and in a rigorous manner the extent to which cognitive training effects can be explained by, and/or augmented by, placebos, and inform future interventions addressing ADRD.

项目概要/摘要该项目解决了关于认知训练的益处程度的基本争议可能至少部分反映了认知训练作为一种潜在的研究和应用。增强健康中青年认知能力以及改善和/或根据现有数据，预防可能有 ADRD 风险的个体与年龄相关的认知能力下降。表明精心设计的认知训练范式可以在现实世界中产生积极的认知变化功能，一些研究人员认为认知训练的积极作用实际上可能这种批评源于这样一个事实：即使在设计最好的认知训练研究中，尽管许多认知训练研究试图对参与者的情况视而不见，但参与者并不能真正对其视而不见。参与者了解培训的意图或目的（例如，使用参与者可能会采取的惰性控制培训）认为作为积极干预是合理的），因为这种控制训练经验必然在关键方面有所不同然而，从积极的训练经验来看，有人认为在认知训练中研究能够直观地了解他们的状况和相关期望，然后显示根深蒂固的结果尽管这一建议在过去的几次评论中频繁出现，但纯粹是出于这些期望。多年来，几乎没有实证工作直接解决安慰剂效应是否可能在认知中发挥作用。培训以及这种影响是否可以解释该领域之前的结果。建议通过旨在明确地进行大规模研究来克服该领域的这一根本差距检查认知训练中的安慰剂效应，特别是从外部领域吸取经验教训。为了严格检查安慰剂效应的诱导，我们使用了两种“纯粹期望”方法（即口头告诉参与者惰性训练方案将增强他们的认知功能）和“联想学习”方法（即，将训练与主观体验的改进表现配对），试图有目的地驱动最大振幅安慰剂效应这不仅有助于解决近端问题。关于安慰剂是否在该领域产生作用存在争议，但如果发现这种作用，它将作为一个未来研究的基准（例如，潜在地利用这种影响）我们将研究这种影响的大小。不同年龄组（年轻人和老年人）、不同认知领域（例如流体智力、工作记忆、选择性注意力）以及跨测试环境（实验室内与远程）。领域表明，安慰剂反应程度可能存在个体差异，我们将还检查一组个体差异变量（例如个性）作为这些变量的可能调节因素这项研究将提供一个独特的基础数据集，可以直接、严格地解决这些差异。安慰剂可以解释和/或增强认知训练效果的程度，以及为未来针对 ADRD 的干预措施提供信息。