An interventional study of Tetris in Neuronal Plasticity, sponsored by Rupert Lanzenberger. Status unknown at 1 site in Austria. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 30 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2019-09-23.
Sponsored by Rupert Lanzenberger · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
Background: Neuronal plasticity is the brain's ability to continuously adapt to experiences and learning of new skills. Although this affects multiple characteristics of the brain such as structure, function and metabolism, direct interactions between these aspects are largely missing.
Aim: Using recent advancements in neuroimaging we aim to identify novel relationships how neuronal plasticity is related across these characteristics.
Design: 40 healthy subjects will undergo two simultaneous PET/MR measurements at baseline and after 4 weeks. During the measurements a cognitively challenging task will be performed and the training group (20 subjects) will practice during the 4-week period.
Implications: We combine simultaneous PET/MR and novel task-specific PET imaging to study brain metabolism, structure and function in a single measurement session. This provides optimal sensitivity for assessment of multimodal neuroplasticity associations. Knowledge how cognitive training affects multiple characteristics of the brain will also increase our understanding of disorders like depression, dementia and brain injuries, since these are diagnosed with cognitive evaluations. Considering the vast usage of the applied imaging procedures in diagnosis and therapy monitoring, the thorough investigation of multimodal associations offers benefit for the interpretability of neuroimaging in clinical routine.
Methodological details: Each subject will undergo two PET/MR examinations. Imaging will include PET as well as acquisition of structural and functional MRI. Task-specific glucose metabolism will be quantified with the radioligand [18F]FDG. Gray matter volume and white matter microstructure will be assessed with T1-weighted and diffusion weighted MRI, respectively. Functional imaging will focus on functional connectivity during rest and task as well as cerebral blood flow as acquired with ASL.
Exclusion Criteria:
20 healthy participants, 4 week training of a challenging cognitive task (Tetris) between PET/MR measurements
Behavioral: Tetris
20 healthy participants, no training between PET/MR measurements
The video game Tetris is a cognitively challenging task, which requires mental rotation, problem solving and fast visuo-spatial and motor coordination.
Training induced changes in imaging parameters
Imaging parameters are glucose metabolism (\[18F\]FDG PET), cerebral blood flow (arterial spin labeling MRI), functional connectivity (resting-state and task fMRI), gray matter volume (T1-weighted MRI) and white matter structure (diffusion weighted MRI)
Time frame: 4 weeks
Cognitive performance
Training induced changes in performance of the video game (score per minute)
Time frame: 4 weeks
Plan to share: Undecided
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Rupert Lanzenberger