Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

"Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is the stage preceding dementia, in which older adults may experience cognitive impairments without meeting the full criteria for dementia. Cognitive training may be valuable for these patients. Although response to cognitive training is variable in MCI patients, factors such as brain structure and personality traits may play a role in predicting which patients will respond best to training. The goal of this study is to determine if considering individual differences in personality in addition to brain structure improves the prediction of how well MCI patients will respond to cognitive training. Participants for this study will be patients diagnosed with MCI. Participants will complete a memory test at baseline as well as a brain scan and a personality questionnaire. Half of the participants will complete six weekly cognitive training sessions which will include sessions on psychoeducation, strategies for promoting memory encoding and retrieval, mindfulness training, and tips on how to transfer these strategies into daily life. The remaining participants will not complete cognitive training. Six months after the end of the cognitive training, all participants will complete a memory test again to see if there has been improvement and determine which factors best predicted improvement. Results from this study will contribute to our understanding of what makes some MCI patients more responsive to cognitive training than others. The identification of personality traits which may predict how well MCI patients respond to cognitive interventions may lead to the development of programs targeting the reduction of negative personality traits in patients who would otherwise be less amenable to treatment."