Do Combinatorial Training Lead to Better Cognition and Daily Participation in Traumatic Brain Injury Persons with Cognitive Impairments? Efficacy and Neural Mechanism of Combining Computerized Cognitive Training, Aerobic Exercise and Guided Training

Cognitive deficits and dysfunction in daily participation are common in patients with traumatic brain injury. Previous studies have reported positive effects on cognitive function after computerized cognitive training, aerobic exercise, or a combination of the two, however, the effects are variable and hardly be transferred to enhance daily participation. It is thus still inconclusive that which types of interventions are better for cognitive remediation and daily participation in patients post traumatic brain injury. Several pioneering studies used guided training for patients with brain injury to acquire problem-solving skills, improve daily function and promote participation. After the training, the effects lasted for six months. However, due to insufficient research samples, it was inferior in generalizability. In the present project, we design an innovative combinatorial training that composites of guided training, computerized cognitive training, and aerobic exercise. We expected that this combinatorial training not only improve cognitive ability but also facilitate daily participation in persons with traumatic brain injury. We plan to recruit 100 patients with traumatic brain injury who have cognitive deficits and will assign them randomly into four groups: aerobic exercise group, cognitive training group, combined training group, and combinatorial training group. The aerobic exercise group and the cognitive training group will be used as controls to compare the immediate effects and long-term effects of combinatorial training and combined training (computerized cognitive training plus aerobic exercise) on cognitive function and daily function/participation of persons with traumatic brain injury. In addition to assessments of cognitvie and phyical function as well as daily function/particiation , we also adopt EEG to investigate the modulation of these four training interventions on cognitive related brain activity and functional connections in neural network. Finally, we will integrate all data to explore and build predictive model to find the best predictive indicators for the multiple training outcomes.

Project ID:PC10901-1934
External Project ID:MOST108-2314-B182-040-MY3