Reduced mind-wandering as a pre-marker of Alzheimer Disease

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Reduced spontaneous cognition as a neuropsychological pre-marker of Alzheimer’s Disease: an interview study

• IRAS ID

  330229

• Contact name

  Nabeela Malik

• Contact email

  n.malik5@herts.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Research and Enterprise

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 2 months, 20 days

• Research summary

  The overall aim of this study is to investigate whether reduced spontaneous cognition (i.e., past memory events or knowledge or thoughts of future tasks that can pop into our minds when one is not deliberately trying to think about it) can form a valid and reliable pre-marker of Alzheimer’s disease. There is evidence to suggest that the area in the brain compromised in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease (the default mode network) is associated with various types of spontaneous cognition (Kvavilashvili et al, 2020). Studies investigating the spontaneous retrieval deficit (SRD) hypothesis are in their preliminary stages of support with further investigation required to ensure reliability and validity of this as a neuropsychological pre-marker of alzheimer’s disease (Niedzwienska et al, 2017; Niedzwienska & Kvavilashvili, 2018; Wereszczynski & Niedzwienska, 2022).
  The aim is to compare healthy younger adult controls (18-35), healthy older adult controls (65+), and those with a diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI – 65+) on their awareness and experience of various types of past and future orientated spontaneous cognition. This study will be modelled on a previous study by Kvavilashvili and Ford (2022), a structured interview will be developed and administered for this study, to investigate participants’ awareness of spontaneous past and future thoughts, the frequency, and the content of their examples provided, to yield insightful information surrounding spontaneous cognition in both age groups. It is important to note that a vast majority of research has utilised a laboratory paradigm, with the administration of a task, such as a vigilance task (Plimpton, Patel and Kvavilashvili, 2015), and as such, conducting an interview, we hope to investigate the occurrence of spontaneous cognition in younger and older adults’ everyday lives.

• REC name

  London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  23/LO/0769

• Date of REC Opinion

  21 Sep 2023

• REC opinion

  Unfavourable Opinion