Preventing Alzheimer's With Cognitive Training

Preventing Alzheimer's Disease with Cognitive Training: The PACT Trial The primary objective in the R56 phase was to establish the feasibility of the proposed field trial including meeting participant enrollment goals. The feasibility of the field trial was established by accruing 1000 enrolled participants. The secondary objective in the R56 phase was to ascertain participants' willingness to enroll in a longitudinal clinical trial and to subsequently complete a multispecialty clinical diagnostic evaluation, psychometric testing, MRI, PET scan, and genetic testing. Participants' willingness to allow access to medicare records was also determined. The trial is being expanded in the R01 phase with the goal of enrolling 7600 participants. The primary goal is to ascertain the effectiveness of cognitive speed of processing training (SPT) to reduce the incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia. Design and Outcomes: A randomized clinical trial among 7600 adults 65 years of age and older will be completed in order to test the effectiveness of computerized cognitive speed of processing training (SPT) to reduce incidence of MCI or dementia. Participants will be screened with an inclusion/exclusion questionnaire and those potentially eligible will complete brief memory screening, depression screening, and other questionnaires. Those eligible will be randomized to one of two conditions of brain games and will complete at least two in-person, supervised training sessions. Additional exercises will be completed at-home over the next 3 to 5 months followed by booster sessions 1- and 2-years later. Participants are asked to initially complete 25 sessions of training and will be asked complete an additional 10 sessions of booster training 1- and 2- years later. Participants are instructed to complete 2-3 sessions of training per week until 25 sessions are completed. At 1- year and again at 2-years, participants will be instructed to complete an additional 10 sessions of training. Sample Size and Population: Adults 65 years of age and older (N=7600) will be randomly assigned to SPT (n=3800) or the active comparator condition (n=3800).