Google Maps

NCT07718945

Overview

NCT ID: NCT07718945
Lead Sponsor: Jessica PeterOTHER
Official Title: Reducing Hippocampal Hyperactivity in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Brief Summary: This study aims to reduce hippocampal activity in people at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aims to examine whether this improves their episodic memory performance. We apply mental strategy trainings with strategies extracted from our previous study that applied real-time fMRI neurofeedback to reduce hippocampal activity. Participants take part in mental strategy trainings 2, 4, or 6 times. At baseline and after each 2 trainings, we assess their hippocampal activity as well as their episodic memory performance using an fMRI pattern separation task. In addition, we will gather blood samples to obtain Apolipoprotein E gene status (ApoE, only once) as well as plasma pTau (pTau217; 4 time-points). ApoE will be included as a covariate in our statistical models. For pTau217, we will calculate the change between each assessment to examine whether the mental strategy training will change the accumulation of pTau217.
Conditions

Status and Timeline

Status: Completed
Last Update Posted: Jul 22, 2026Actual
Start Date: Feb 13, 2024Actual
Primary Completion Date: Oct 22, 2025Actual
Completion Date

Participation Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study: Adult (18-64)Older Adult (65+)
Sexes Eligible for Study: All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Yes
Eligibility Criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment

between 60 - 80 years of age

fluent in German

normal or corrected-to-normal vision

normal or corrected-to-normal hearing

Exclusion Criteria:

any history of seizures

current psychotropic medication

other severe neurological or psychiatric disease

current or lifetime drug or alcohol abuse

severe brain damage other than atrophy in the hippocampus or the medial temporal lobe

claustrophobia

magnetisable implants (e.g., cardiac pacemakers, brain stimulator)

Study Plan

Study Type: Interventional
Phase: Not Applicable
Enrollment: 55Actual
Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)

Contacts and Locations

Central Contacts: No data available
Locations: Universitäre Psychiatrische Dienste Bern

Similar Studies

Participant Group/Arms

Group A: 15 participants will be assigned to group AExperimental

Group A will attend 6 mental strategy trainings and will start the training after the first assessment. The training content is identical for all groups. The groups differ only in the number of training sessions and in the timing of the intervention onset (i.e., after the first assessment or after three assessment time points).

Other: Mental Strategy Training

Group B: 15 participants will be assigned to group BExperimental

Group B will attend 4 mental strategy trainings and will start with the training after the first assessment. The training content is identical for all groups. The groups differ only in the number of training sessions and in the timing of the intervention onset (i.e., after the first assessment or after three assessment time points).

Other: Mental Strategy Training

Group C: 15 participants will be assigned to group CExperimental

Group C will attend 2 mental strategy trainings and will start with the training after the first assessment. The training content is identical for all groups. The groups differ only in the number of training sessions and in the timing of the intervention onset (i.e., after the first assessment or after three assessment time points).

Other: Mental Strategy Training

Group D: 10 participants will be assigned to group DActive Comparator

Group D will attend 2 mental strategy trainings and will start with the training after the third assessment. The training content is identical for all groups. The groups differ only in the number of training sessions and in the timing of the intervention onset (i.e., after the first assessment or after three assessment time points).

Other: Mental Strategy Training