Home › Mild Cognitive Impairment › NCT07225400
Designing a Spatial Navigation Intervention Protocol Informed by Region-specific Brain Activation for Mild Cognitive Impairment
Who can join
Ages 65 and older · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome
Full eligibility criteria
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 65 and older with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI); * Can speak English; * Agrees to MoBI recording; * Normal or corrected-to-normal vision/audition; * Able to walk unassisted for 10 minutes; * Plan to be in the area for next year Exclusion Criteria: * Dementia (Memory Impairment/AD8 screening or a previous physician diagnosis of dementia); * Medical conditions that affect participation such as vertigo and neck pain, history of falls, neuropathy, balance impairments, or vision or hearing deficits that are not adequately corrected; * Hospitalization in the past six months or plans for surgery affecting participation in the next four months; * Mobility limitations solely due to musculoskeletal limitation or pain; * Terminal illness with life expectancy less than 12 months or a serious chronic or acute illness that would prevent safe participation, such as late stage or metastatic cancer, active cancer treatment, chronic pulmonary disease requiring ventilator support or continuous oxygen therapy, or an active liver disease; * Progressive degenerative neurological disease, such as Parkinson disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); * Presence of clinical disorders that overtly alter attention like delirium; * Active psychosis or psychiatric symptoms such as agitation, that would prevent completion of the study procedures, a history of these symptoms alone will not be used as an exclusion criteria; * Living in nursing home; * Participation in intervention trial; * Standard contraindications to EEG including seizure medication, epilepsy, stroke, traumatic brain injury; * Pregnant women Note: Adults ages 18 and older will also be enrolled for future age-based group comparisons.
About the study
The goal of this one-arm clinical trial is to determine whether participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can successfully navigate a virtual reality (VR) maze. The VR maze is designed as a training tool aimed at improving participants' spatial navigation abilities.
Main Aims:
1. To determine whether at least 70% of older adults enrolled in the study can complete twenty-four 50-minute training sessions over a 4-month period. 2. To assess whether combining virtual reality with EEG recordings can be used to measure brain activation and changes in brain activation associated with spatial navigation learning.
Participants will:
1. Walk in an open, unobstructed space while wearing VR goggles. 2. Explore up to fifty different virtual mazes in sequence and attempt to find their way through each one.
What is being tested
- Spatial Navigation training (behavioral)
Sponsor: Albert Einstein College of Medicine · Participants: 30 · Started: Sep 15, 2026
Contact the study team
- Pierfilippo De Sanctis, PhD · Phone: 718-862-1828
- Maya Hoff, BS · Phone: 7188397650
Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT07225400
Locations in the U.S.
| New York | Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Manhattan Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Bronx |
Conditions
From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Nov 15, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.