Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking, function and behaviour. Currently, a group of drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors are used to improve memory, but are frequented by side-effects. Moreover, benefits from these drugs are modest and AD patients eventually worsen even with continued use. There remains a critical need for treatments focused on early stages of the disease, when quality of life is still potentially excellent. While transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS; neurostimulation with a non-painful current to the brain) has been shown to improve memory in some people with mild AD with minimal side-effects, recent evidence suggests that tDCS works better when brain circuits are active. As exercise increases brain activity using mechanisms that may support tDCS response, it may be an effective primer given before tDCS. This study assesses whether exercise priming with tDCS can help improve memory in mild AD, and whether this combination improves memory better than exercise or tDCS alone. Patients are randomly assigned to receive either 1) combined exercise and tDCS, 2) exercise and nonactive tDCS or 3) exercise education only and tDCS. Blinded preliminary findings will be presented (N=10, mean age=74±6 years, 50% female, mean years of education=16.2±2.5 years, mean Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score= 21.5±2.9). There was a significant effect of treatment over time on Word Recall scores (F(2,7)=5.5, p=0.036). While not statistically significant, there were differences between treatment groups over time on MoCA scores (F(2,7)=3.6, p=0.085) and on Word Recognition scores (F(2,7)=4.5, p=0.054). Overall adherence to study interventions was 98%. Recruitment is ongoing (N=10/30). Updated results will be presented. This study may identify a new, feasible, non-invasive therapy that preserves memory in early stages of AD, therefore having major health implications