Active clinical trials for "Memory Disorders"

Background: - Studies have shown that animals such as monkeys and dogs have excellent sight and touch memory but perform poorly on sound memory tasks. Human brains have certain areas that are important for speaking and understanding language. These areas may be involved in sound and spoken word memory. Researchers want to study these areas of the brain to find out if the memory for sounds requires brain structures that are usually associated with language learning and are unique to humans. Objectives: - To use magnetic resonance imaging to study areas of the brain involved in sound memory. Eligibility: - Healthy right-handed volunteers between 18 and 50 years of age. They must be native English speakers and have completed high school. Design: The study requires a screening visit and 1 or 2 study visits to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. At the screening visit, volunteers will have a medical history taken. They will also have physical and neurological exams, and complete a questionnaire. Women of childbearing age will give a urine sample. Participants who have not had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan in the past year will have one at this visit. At the second visit, participants will have tests of sound memory. They will listen to a set of nonsense words spoken through earphones and memorize the words. Then they will listen to the words again to judge if the words were part of the earlier list. Participants will have a 1 hour break, then do the sound memory test again. During the second test they will have repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), which stimulates different regions of the brain. If the group results from the testing sessions are positive, there will be a third visit. At this visit, participants will have a sound perception test. They will listen to words spoken through earphones and judge whether the words in the pair are the same or different. Participants will have rTMS during these tests as well.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Today no treatment had shown consistent efficacy to stop or slow down the disease. Recent report of enhancement of memory abilities by bilateral chronic deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the fornix in the hypothalamus suggests that neuromodulation of circuits involved in memory processes may have therapeutic implications in AD patients with memory decline. The primary objectives of this prospective, non-controlled, pilot study are to assess the feasibility and safety of DBS in AD patients with mild cognitive and memory impairment, and to evaluate the efficacy of DBS to slow down or stabilize this decline. Five patients with AD (DSM IV) diagnosed less than two years, with mild cognitive decline (MMSE 20-24), and specific impairment of episodic memory will be included in a 2-year period. The evaluation criteria for feasibility will be the proportion of patients undergoing the procedure, chronic stimulation and evaluation process without adverse event (AE). Efficacy will be evaluated using numerous cognitive and memory testing including classical instrument used in AD clinical trials. Changes in behavioral scales, and changes in hypothalamic functions (clinical, biological and hormonal assessment) will evaluate safety and tolerance. Clinical, neuro-psychological, biological and imaging assessment will be performed 3 and one month before and 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after surgery. Bilateral electrodes (Medtronic 3389) will be implanted, by MR-guided frame-based stereotaxy, in the hypothalamic part of the fornix, and then connected to the generator (Kinetra, Medtronic). Chronic high-frequency stimulation will be delivered immediately after surgery. The investigators expect to slow down, or to stabilize the spontaneous decline of MMSE and ADAS scores after 6, 12 and 24 months of stimulation. In case of efficacy, DBS might offer to AD patient the possibility to slow down/stabilize their symptoms, which no other treatment can currently offer, and to increase their quality of life.

Complaints about memory loss are very common in women in the menopausal transition period. The effectiveness of estrogen replacement therapy in cognitive improvement is controversial. Partial positive results were obtained in some studies with regard to memory improvement, so far no standard treatment considered effective in these cases. Effective pharmacological approaches to the treatment of memory loss associated with menopause are an unmet medical need. Cogmax® is a multivitamin and mineral supplement that contains numerous key elements for cognitive function, and may be a safe therapeutic option in these cases. The multicenter, non-comparative (single-arm) phase IV clinical trial will be conducted with 80 female participants aged 45 to 60 years and menopausal memory loss complaint. After 3 months of using multivitamin and mineral supplement, memory and attention will be reevaluated through specific questionnaire and the Stroop Test Victoria version.

The aim of the study is to prove whether general anesthesia with inhaled sevoflurane reduces the frequency of neurological and cognitive impairment after open-heart operations with use of cardiopulmonary by-pass (CPB) in comparison with intravenous anesthesia with propofol.

Executive functioning (EF) deficits are a core, transdiagnostic feature of psychopathology and one of the strongest predictors of clinical and functional outcomes, yet there remains a dearth of treatments available for EF deficits. EF is a collection of cognitive control processes that includes working memory (i.e., maintain/manipulate data not perceptually present), inhibition (i.e., inhibit/control of attention, thoughts, behaviors) and flexibility (i.e., shift flexibly between tasks/sets). These EF subdomains are subserved by a network (i.e., cognitive control network) of frontal (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC]), parietal and subcortical regions, with hypoactivation in such regions often underlying EF deficits. There is a recent call in psychiatry to develop experimental therapeutics that target anomalous neural systems underlying symptomology. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a therapeutic, non-invasive method of cortical excitability modulation. High frequency rTMS to the left DPLFC has an activating effect on the cognitive control network, with initial research in adults finding a subsequent enhancing effect on working memory, inhibition, and flexibility. rTMS represents a very promising potential tool to target EF deficits in psychopathology.

To evaluate the effectiveness of an online educational course on Alzheimer's disease (AD) prevention, treatment and caregiving.

In this phase I-II parallel design, randomized, double-blind clinical trial we will determine if 3,000 or 30,000 units ingested hrIFN-a prevents deterioration of cognitive functioning in patients with dementia of Alzheimer's type (AD) and whether ingested hrIFN-a treatment decreases acute phase reactants and pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 in mild to moderate AD. We predict that the novel anti-inflammatory agent ingested human recombinant interferon alpha (hrIFN-a) will modulate inflammation and inhibit the natural history of AD progression. If you are eligible, you will receive Aricept for 5 weeks (donezepil) and thereafter in addition to Aricept either placebo (inactive substance) or interferon alpha at 3,000 or 30,000 units every day for 12 months.

The purpose of this 12-month study is to determine whether nicotine, administered in the form of nicotine patches, can improve symptoms of memory loss in some people experiencing mild memory problems (referred to in this study as "mild cognitive impairment" or MCI).

In France the prevalence of pre-lingual deafness is between 1 and 1.4 per 1000 habitants, and according to very conservative estimates, about 44 000 deaf persons use the sign language. Additionally, the prevalence of dementia in France is close to 1% (850 000 dements for a total population of 65 millions). The prevalence of dementia in pre-lingual deaf adults has also been described and is between 1 and 1.4 /100 000 habitants. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) of Folstein is a test recommended to perform the cognitive evaluation for the detection of mental disorders including dementia, and a consensual French version exists prepared by GRECO (Group of Research and Cognitive Assessments). However, to date, there are no simple, rapid and validated screening tests to study cognitive disorders in deaf persons who use the sign language. The only tests available allow a late diagnosis avoiding an optimal treatment of the patients.

This is a three-year study to determine if estrogens can prevent memory loss and Alzheimer's disease in women with a family history of Alzheimer's disease.