Brief Summary

Prospective memory is the ability to remember to carry out intentions with a certain delay (e.g. remember to buy stamps when passing a postal office). Prospective memory tasks require a large degree of self-initiated retrieval and in the absence of a prompt to recall, people must 'remember to remember' by their own volition. Thus, prospective memory is a challenge - especially in old age with increasing health-related prospective memory demands. Previous studies reported links between neural activity in specific brain regions and prospective memory performance. Yet, the mere occurrence of a change in brain activity in concomitance with performance of a behavioral task is not sufficient to confirm a causal relationship between the two phenomena. Therefore, this study aims to apply non-invasive brain stimulation to facilitate or inhibit activity in different brain regions presumed to be functionally associated with prospective memory. Additional to the prospective memory tasks, the investigators will implement control tasks (i.e., attention) to assess whether stimulation will specifically enhance prospective memory performance or whether other cognitive functions will be modulated additionally. It is hypothesized that stimulation will lead to changes in prospective memory functioning. Further, the investigators expect that facilitation of attentional processes might be linked to prospective memory improvements.

Trial Health

On Track

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment

106

participants targeted

Target at P50-P75 for not_applicable

Timeline

Completed

Started Jun 2021

Typical duration for not_applicable

Geographic Reach

1 country

1 active site

Status

completed

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

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Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

2.3 years study duration

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

May 6, 2021

Completed

6 days until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

May 12, 2021

Completed

2 months until next milestone

Study Start

First participant enrolled

June 28, 2021

Completed

2.3 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

October 31, 2023

Completed

Same day until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

October 31, 2023

Completed

Last Updated

December 12, 2023

Status Verified

December 1, 2023

Enrollment Period

2.3 years

First QC Date

May 6, 2021

Last Update Submit

December 11, 2023

Conditions

Healthy Aging

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (9)

Prospective memory performance
Assessed with a computer task. Number of correct answers given to prospective memory stimuli. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), fixed to 14 minutes
Prospective memory reaction time
Assessed with a computer task. Reaction times of answers given to prospective memory stimuli. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), fixed to 14 minutes
Executive controlling functioning
Assessed with a computer task (ANT - Attentional Network Task). Interference between answers given to congruent and incongruent stimuli. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), task fixed to 6 minutes
Flexibility performance
Assessed with a computer task (TAP- Test of Attentional Performance). Number of correct answers. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after intervention), 3 minutes
Inhibition errors
Assessed with a computer task (Test of Attentional Performance). Sum of incorrect responses to no-go stimuli. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after intervention), 2 minutes
Divided attention misses
Assessed with a computer task (TAP - Test of Attentional Performance). Sum of missed target stimuli. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after intervention), 3 minutes 30 seconds
Flexibility reaction-time
Assessed with a computer task (TAP - Test of Attentional Performance). Mean/ median of reactions times of correct responses. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after intervention), 3 minutes
Inhibition reaction time
Assessed with a go/no-go computer task (TAP -Test of Attentional Performance). Mean/ median of reactions times to correct responses. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after intervention), 2 minutes
Divided attention reaction time
Assessed with a computer-based task (Test of Attentional Performance). Median reaction time of correct answers. Change from baseline to intervention session, difference between intervention groups.
During both sessions (for stimulation session: directly after stimulation), 3 minutes 30 seconds

Secondary Outcomes (5)

Alerting network functioning
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), task fixed to 6 minutes
Orienting network functioning
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), task fixed to 6 minutes
Ongoing-task performance
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), fixed to 14 minutes
Ongoing-task reaction time
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), fixed to 14 minutes
Ongoing-task intra-individual coefficient of variation
During both sessions (for stimulation session: during intervention), fixed to 14 minutes

Other Outcomes (7)

Self-rated prospective memory
Only at baseline session, after computer-based tasks, 10 minutes
Self-rated metacognitive prospective memory
Only at stimulation session, after intervention, 10 minutes
Stimulation Side-Effects
Only at stimulation session, after intervention, 3 minutes
+4 more other outcomes