Cholinergic Mechanisms of Attention in Aging

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Trial end date: 2024-05-30
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

This study will use an anticholinergic pharmacological probe to examine attention network function in SCD using EEG. The overall hypothesis is that in older adults with SCD, normal cognitive performance is maintained by compensatory attention network activity, supported by enhanced cholinergic function. The investigators anticipate that SCD will be associated with greater compensatory attention network activity and that disrupting this compensatory process through anticholinergic challenge will result in a greater negative effect on attentional performance (Attention Network Test, ANT) and attention network functioning (EEG) in older adults with SCD compared to those without SCD.

• Phase: Early Phase 1
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Treatments: Mecamylamine

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. age ≥ 60

2. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) > 25 AND Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) rating < 3

3. Non-smokers

Exclusion Criteria:

1. medical contraindications to the drug challenge

2. primary neurological disorder (such as stroke, epilepsy, etc.)