A Language-Based Training Intervention to Enhance Cognitive Health in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Promoting Active Inference of Healthy Older Adults With Language Activity

In brief

Taiwan is fast approaching a super-aged society, making it urgent to bolster cognitive health in otherwise healthy older adults. This integrated project tackles that need with a language-centered intervention grounded in predictive-coding and active-inference theory. Over 12 weeks, community-dwelling adults aged 65 + join small-group reading-and-writing workshops that train them to actively predict, monitor, and revise linguistic information. Ninety volunteers are randomly allocated to an active language-prediction group, a passive reading group, or a hobby board-game control. Before and after the course, researchers collect behavioural tests, EEG, fMRI, and AI-based speech-language analytics to quantify gains and transfer effects across cognition, emotion, and daily function.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07132281

Run by

National Taiwan University Hospital

People needed

120

Starts

2025-09-02

Expected to finish

2028-12-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-01-07

Who can join

Age: 60 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Aged between 20 and 30 (healthy young adults) or aged 65 and above (healthy older adults).
• Native Mandarin Chinese speakers who had no exposure to non-indigenous languages before the age of five.
• Have completed at least a junior high school level of education.
• Right-handed.
• Have normal or corrected-to-normal vision (e.g., through glasses or contact lenses).
• Able to fully participate in the entire assessment and intervention schedule (with no more than two missed intervention sessions).
• Achieve a score of 23 or higher on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

You may not qualify if…

• Participation in another cognitive intervention program within the past two months.
• Cognitive intervention is not feasible due to dyslexia or physical illness. Meet the diagnostic criteria for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or dementia.
• Presence of severe depression, or cognitive changes caused by other psychiatric, neurological disorders, or substance abuse, with symptoms that are unstable or interfere with functioning.
• History of brain injury or neurological conditions (e.g., stroke, aneurysm).
• Contraindications for MRI scanning, such as metal implants, pacemakers, or pregnancy.
• Claustrophobia (an anxiety disorder characterized by panic symptoms or fear of panic attacks in enclosed spaces such as elevators, vehicles, tunnels, or airplane cabins).
• Unable to undergo cognitive assessments due to visual or hearing impairments.

Where it is running

• National Taiwan University — Taipei, Taiwan (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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