Recruiting

Exercise

Sponsor:

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Code:

NCT05079464

Conditions

Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 50+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

tDCS

Exercise

Sham stimulation

Treatment as usual

Study Details

Brief summary:

People with vascular conditions are at risk of having memory problems, and these memory problems increase the risk for further cognitive decline. Brain stimulation has been used to improve mood and memory. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is believed to work best on brain cells that are active or "primed" before stimulation. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of exercise and tDCS on memory performance in patients who have completed cardiac rehabilitation and are at risk of cognitive decline.

Conditions

Vascular Cognitive Impairment

Mild Cognitive Impairment

Study ID

NCT05079464

Start date

Nov 22, 2021

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Dec, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 50+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • ≥50 years of age; females must be post-menopausal
  • Presence of cerebrovascular and/or cardiovascular risk factors or coronary artery disease
  • Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) <27
  • Sufficiently proficient in English
  • Must be able to exercise at a moderate intensity level
  • Presence of modest deficits (1 standard deviation below population norm) in one of the following domains: executive function, verbal memory, working memory, or visuospatial memory

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of stroke
  • Change in psychotropics within the last 4 weeks
  • Current benzodiazepine use due
  • Metal implants that would preclude safe use of tDCS or neuroimaging
  • Significant neurological or psychiatric conditions (current major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia)
  • MoCA <18 and/or clinical diagnosis of dementia
  • Any medical contraindications to exercise

Study Design

Enrollment

64 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Exercise primed tDCS

Individuals randomized to this group will receive exercise at University Health Network-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute followed by active tDCS.

other: Exercise primed Sham stimulation

Individuals randomized to this group will receive exercise at University Health Network-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute followed by sham tDCS.

other: Treatment as usual (exercise education) & tDCS

Individuals randomized to this group will receive routine advice about physical activity, and active tDCS.

other: Treatment as usual (exercise education) & sham stimulation

Individuals randomized to this group will receive routine advice about physical activity, and sham tDCS.

Interventions

tDCS

All participants randomized to tDCS will receive active tDCS

Exercise

Participants will exercise at Toronto Rehab.

Sham stimulation

The same procedure for tDCS will be used for the sham condition, except without active current.

Treatment as usual

Exercise education/ treatment as usual will include routine advice about physical activity.

Primary outcome measure

  • Montreal Cognitive Assessment - Global Cognition [ Time Frame: 2 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Mehreen Siddiqui

416-480-6100mehreen.siddiqui@sri.utoronto.ca

Kate Survilla

416-480-6100kate.survilla@sri.utoronto.ca

Locations

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Recruiting

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 3M5

Contacts

Mehreen Siddiqui

416-480-6100mehreen.siddiqui@sri.utoronto.ca

More Information

Sponsor

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Last update posted

Apr 13, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Keywords

  • transcranial direct current stimulation
  • tDCS
  • exercise
  • cognition
  • vascular cognitive impairment no dementia
  • vascular mild cognitive impairment

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre on 2026-04-13.