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Remembering people's names using a digital therapy app.
People with dementia often have difficulty recalling the names of people that they know well.
The Gotcha! study is designed to address this.
We all forget the names of people we should know at times. Having dementia makes this problem worse. People with dementia have told us they forget the names of people they care about and this can be upsetting and embarrassing. However, we know that if people get enough practice, they can re-learn these face and name associations. That’s why we have worked with people with dementia and their carers to create a new computer therapy that may help.
The Gotcha! Study
Gotcha! is a fun, computer-based therapy designed to help people with dementia get lots of practice in order to retrieve the names of people who are important to them. Gotcha! is being tested in an ongoing clinical trial funded by the NIHR. If you are eligible for the study, we will provide you with a computer tablet to practice at home in your own time.
How does it work?
You will need to think of 6-10 familiar people (family and friends) whose names you sometimes forget and want to recall better. We will ask you to practice these names with the tablet for 30 minutes every day over a six-week period. We will also ask you to attend five appointments with the research team over six months. We will organise and pay for all your journeys to and from University College London. For those appointments where you do not need to have a brain scan, the study team can visit you in your home if you prefer.
How can I take part?
Recruitment will continue until 2024. We would like you to be involved in our research if:
- You have problems recalling or producing the names of people that you know well
- Have a diagnosis of dementia (Alzheimer’s disease, vascular or mixed dementia)
What will be the outcome of the study?
During this study we hope that people with dementia will improve their ability to name familiar people. We are investigating whether computer-based therapies are an effective tool that can be used to improve cognitive problems caused by dementia. The study will also enable us to understand how the brain changes in response to this type of therapy in people with dementia.
Patient and Public Involvement
We have engaged with people from the Alzheimer’s Society and local dementia carers groups. We have asked people about all parts of the research project. We have run many focus groups and interviewed people with dementia and their carers to co-design the therapy. We ran a successful feedback event for the first cohorts of people with dementia and their carers who took part.
If you want to learn more about the study contact us (see the contact box) or dowload the information sheet below.
