Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Set-to-change (Set to change: early life factors restricting and promoting neurocognitive plasticity through life) Okres sprawozdawczy: 2021-10-01 do 2023-03-31 Podsumowanie kontekstu i ogólnych celów projektu Cognitive function varies widely across individuals and changes much through life, yet a very powerful predictor of function in old age is level of functioning when young. This is quite compelling given that cognitive function changes substantially with age and there is large inter-individual variation in cognitive scores.The question is: Are we neurodevelopmentally set to change through life in certain ways? If so, which early life factors are important to adult and old age brain and cognition, and to what extent are they environmental or genetic in origin? The main aim of Set-to-change is to identify how early life environmental and genetic factors restrict and promote neurocognitive plasticity through life. Neurocognitive plasticity; i.e. changes in brain and cognition in response to environmental demands over time, shows huge individual variability, for unknown reasons. Neurodevelopmental origins of functional variation through the lifespan are acknowledged, but the pathways need to be identified.To make progress beyond state of the art, the research project follows an experimental approach. Differences in neurocognitive plasticity are tested by cognitive training of younger and older adult mono- (MZ) and dizygotic twins (total n = 400 individuals), with varying level of birth-weight. Birth weight differences in MZ twins enables the researchers to disentangle early environmental and genetic influences on neurocognitive plasticity. The cognitive training is a memory intervention utilizing navigation with true locomotion and prospective memory in virtual reality. Beyond the cognitive training, the twins are being assessed with brain MRI, cognitive, health and epigenetic measures at multiple time points to investigate neurocognitive plasticity and age change longitudinally. Lifestyle factors such as physical activity, food intake, body composition, sleep, blood pressure, in addition to blood markers of fatty acids, vitamins and cholesterol will be analysed as well as possible moderators of differences in plastic responses and age changes.The project is ground-breaking in showing how early life environmental and genetic factors impact on brain and cognition across decades. Prace wykonane od początku projektu do końca okresu sprawozdawczego oraz najważniejsze dotychczasowe rezultaty We have developed a cognitive training program, aiming to improve memory and navigation skills by using Virtual reality (VR) and computerized home tasks. The program consists of a 10-week training program, with one weekly group meeting, two weekly individual on-site VR-training sessions riding a bike in a virtual city, and two weekly homework tasks. The training periods are preceded and immediately followed by a neuropsychological test assessment and MRI-scans. Approximately half of the participants additionally undergo a neuropsychological test and brain scan 10 weeks prior to the training intervention, while half undergo a follow up assessment 10 weeks after concluding the intervention. Innowacyjność oraz oczekiwany potencjalny wpływ (w tym dotychczasowe znaczenie społeczno-gospodarcze i szersze implikacje społeczne projektu) 1) The making of the virtual city, where participants use bikes on bike rollers, navigating while being immersed in virtual reality (VR). This city is huge enough to encompass all levels of skill across the 10 week of training (approximately 5 km2). The real-motion interactive VR setting is a huge achievement.2) The making of the training program, including navigation, retrospective and prospective memory tasks in the city.3) The experimental making and/or implementation of: additional cross-modal within session plasticity paradigms (perceptual practice effects, motor practice effects (mirror tracing) and episodic verbal practice effects), and the implementation of a “grid-cell”-paradigm for fMRI as well as the analysis stream for this.
