Online Interplay Between Deciding and Acting With Mild Cognitive Impairment

NCT ID: NCT06493422

Last Updated: 2025-10-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 60 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2025-01-28
• Study Completion Date: 2026-06-30

Brief Summary

The investigators aim to understand the interplay and neural structures involved with decision--making and movement for participants with mild cognitive impairment. Rapidly deciding and acting becomes bottlenecked with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's, leading to detrimental outcomes such as falling and car crashes. The investigators work will have a tangible impact by discovering sensitive biomarkers to detect disease onset and pave the way for informed and effective neurorehabilitation.

Detailed Description

Mild cognitive impairment leads not only to impaired decision making, but also movement deficits that predict the development of Alzheimer's disease. Recent behavioral work has suggested a common mechanism that throttles the speed of both decisions and reaching movements, which is supported by converging neural evidence that finds an interac-tion between decision making and movement (motor) circuits. Yet it remains unknown how the interplay between decision making and motor neural circuits becomes impaired and impedes rapid responses for those with mild cognitive impairment. Here the investigators test the central hypothesis that there is an impaired interaction between decision making and motor neural circuits with mild cognitive impairment.

First, the investigators will use human reaching experiments to establish that mild cognitive impairment disrupts the interplay of decision making and motor control. Second, the investigators will use Magnetic resonance elastography to elucidate whether brain stiffness in decision making and motor brain regions are related to altered movement behavior. The expected outcome is a mechanistic understanding of how impaired decision making and motor neural circuits impact movement for those with mild cognitive impairment.

Conditions

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Reaching task

Mild cognitive impairment participants will make decisions while moving

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Reaching Movements

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

participants will perform a perceptual decision making task while moving their hand.

Reaching Task

Age-match control participants will make decision while moving

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Reaching Movements

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

participants will perform a perceptual decision making task while moving their hand.

Interventions

Reaching Movements

participants will perform a perceptual decision making task while moving their hand.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1. age 45 - 90 years

2. Perfect or corrected vision

3. Ability to reach

4. Neurotypical Age-Matched control participants - No history of neurological disorders or injury.

5. Mild Cognitive Impairment participants - clinical diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Exclusion Criteria

1. Any injury or condition that impacts reaching

2. Traumatic brain injury, such as concussion, in the last 6 months.

3. Neurotypical Age-Matched control participants: Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) score < 34

4. Mild Cognitive Impairment participants: Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) score > 34

5. Mild Cognitive Impairment participants: Mini-Mental State Examination Second Edition (MMSE-2) score < 21.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 45 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 90 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Delaware

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Joshua Cashaback

Assistant Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Josh Cashaback

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Delaware

Locations

University of Delaware

Newark, Delaware, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Joshua Cashaback

Role: CONTACT

joshcash@udel.edu

(302) 831-2792

Other Identifiers

U54GM104941

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

2026374-5

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id