Neurostimulation for cognitive enhancement in Alzheimer's disease (the NICE-AD study): a randomized clinical trial.

New therapies for symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are urgently needed. Prior studies suggest that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive neuromodulatory method, may be a safe and potentially effective treatment, but conclusions have been limited by small-sample sizes and brief stimulation protocols. This double-blind randomized trial involving 100 older adults with mild-to-moderate AD examines effects of 6 months of at-home active tDCS or sham delivered over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Home-based exercise program for older adults with Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome: feasibility study.

We developed a home-based goal-directed exercise program with telephonic coaching to overcome barriers to exercise participation in cognitively impaired older adults. Six patients with Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome at high risk for dementia were enrolled, three assigned to goal-directed exercises and three to stretching exercises. All participants underwent an in-person training session followed by a session at home with a telephonic coach.

The Effect of Personality Traits on Risk of Incident Pre-dementia Syndromes.

Objectives: Personality traits have been shown to be associated with the risk of dementia; less is known about their association with pre-dementia syndromes. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of personality traits as predictors of incident pre-dementia, motoric cognitive risk (MCR), and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) syndromes.

Design: We prospectively examined the association between five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness) and the risk of incident MCR or MCI.

A comparison of turn and straight walking phases as predictors of incident falls.

Background: While gait assessments are recommended to evaluate fall risk in older adults, these often involve walking in a straight line, even though one-third of steps taken throughout the day involve turning. Falls that occur during a turn tend to be more serious than falls that occur during a straight walk, but little is known about how gait variables collected during a turn can predict falls.

Research Question: How do gait characteristics collected from straight and turning walking phases predict falls in older adults?

Methods: We prospectively examined the association between six quantitative gait variables measured during normal walking turn and straight walking phases as predictors of incident falls in a community-based sample of older adults (N = 253; mean age 78.