Sign up by: 30 April 2025
This is a 5-year study which aims to evaluate and characterize frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) patients and asymptomatic individuals belonging to family with a strong history of an FTLD syndrome and their caregivers. This study seeks to learn more about how FTLD syndromes progress over time and to develop new tools that can aid with diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of FTLD.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: Funding: NIH International Study on FTD
Location: In-person (Required at Toronto Western Hospital)
How Often: Yearly
Compensation: Yes (Participants will be compensated for their travel, time and parking.)
Contact: Daniela Mora-Fisher, Clinical Research Coordinator
[email protected]
(416) 603-5914
Research Studies
Interested in participating in research studies? Scroll down to browse our current list.
Questionnaire
Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD)
Interview/Focus Group
A pilot study assessing the benefits of a dementia caregiver educational brochure on decreased empathy and emotion recognition in patients with neurodegenerative disease
Sign up by: 01 September 2025
Caregiving for people with dementia has become an issue of international importance. The focus of research in caregiver burden and distress in neurodegenerative disease has been on the patients' cognitive deficits and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Social cognition comprises many psychological processes that allows individuals to partake in social situations by enabling them to perceive and recognize the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of others. There is growing awareness of social cognitive deficits occurring in the different neurodegenerative diseases. People with dementia may display increasing difficulties in understanding social cues or recognizing emotions and caregivers are generally unaware of these deficits. There is growing evidence that changes in emotion recognition can impact caregiver mood and be associated with caregiver burden.
This is a pilot project to assess the feasibility of educating dementia caregivers on emotion recognition deficits and decreased empathy in patients with dementia and the impact of education on caregiver burden, mood and quality of life. Seventy-five dementia caregiver-patient pairs will be recruited for this cross-sectional study. Caregivers' ability to detect emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in the patient will be assessed. Caregivers will be given a questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge of emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in the patient. Caregiver burden, mood, and quality of life will be assessed. The caregivers will then be given educational material on emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in dementia and then be asked to evaluate the information they have received. After 1 month, caregivers will be contacted to assess whether the information they received changed their understanding of emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment and if it had an impact on caregiver burden, mood and quality of life.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: Toronto Western and General Hospitals
Location: In-person (Optional at Toronto Western Hospital) + Phone (Optional)
How Often: Yearly
Compensation: No
Contact: Daniela Mora-Fisher, Clinical Research Coordinator
[email protected]
416-603-5914
Interview/Focus Group
Four Repeat Taupathy Neuroimaging Initiative
Sign up by: 01 September 2025
This study follows people with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) for up to 2 years and compares their brain changes with healthy volunteers of the same age. Researchers hope to learn more about how patients with PSP and CBD progress over time and which measures are best for tracking change and predicting progression. Various measures including brain imaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, eye tracking, blood markers and neuropsychological testing will be measured.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: Mayo Clinic NIH
Location: In-person (Required at Toronto Western Hospital)
How Often: A few times a year + Yearly
Compensation: Yes (Participants will be compensated for their time and expenses)
Contact: Daniela Mora-Fisher, Clinical Research Coordinator
[email protected]
416-603-5914
Questionnaire
Measuring nutrition risk in community-living seniors
Sign up by: August 17, 2025
The goal of our study is to see if a nutrition questionnaire can identify nutrition challenges for persons living with diagnosed dementia or mild cognitive impairment when completed by themselves or by their care partner. Persons living with diagnosed dementia or mild cognitive impairment and their care partner will participate. There are three study visits conducted at your home or at the University of Waterloo. The study will involve questionnaires, weight, height and functional assessments and you will record food and beverage intake for one day. At the last study visit you will meet with a registered dietitian for an assessment and receive individualized tips on how you can improve your nutrition.
Key details
Study sponsor: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Location: In-person participation - Researchers may either come into your personal home or you may choose to complete data collection at the University of Waterloo Toby Jenkins Applied Health Research Building
How often: A few times a month (e.g. biweekly/every 2 weeks)
Compensation: $25 gift card or equal value gift
Contact: Vanessa Trinca, Project Coordinator
519-888-4567 ext. 41470
Diet/Exercise
The Effects of Exercise on Synaptic Plasticity in Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment
Sign up by: October 1, 2025
We are a team conducting research investigating opportunities to preserve brain health in individuals experiencing mild cognitive impairment. Specifically, we are assessing the brain's ability to induce short-term neuroplasticity before and following a four-week exercise intervention. The exercise involves cycling on a stationary bike for approximately 5 - 10 minutes at a self-determined intensity and will be supervised by qualified personnel at McMaster University's Physical Activity Center Exercise. We will measure brain responses using a non-invasive technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation. The long-term goal of this work is to determine whether exercise can improve memory loss in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: McMaster Institute for Research in Aging (MIRA)
Location: In-person (Required at 1280 Main St W, Hamilton ON) and Phone
How Often: A few times per week
Compensation: None
Contact: Karishma Ramdeo, PhD Student
(647) 991-9904
Questionnaire
Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative (GENFI)
Sign up by: December 31, 2026
This is a multisite study which aims to evaluate and characterize genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients and asymptomatic individuals belonging to family with a strong history of an FTD. Researchers seek to better understand the brain changes that occur in FTD and which measures are best for tracking change and predicting progression. Various measures including brain imaging, eye tracking, blood markers and neuropsychological testing will be measured.
For more information, check out their website at GENFI – The Genetic Frontotemporal Initiative.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)
Location: In-person (2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto ON M4N 3M5)
How Often: Yearly
Compensation: Meal voucher and parking passes provided at each visit.
Contact: Sabrina Armstrong, Clinical Research Coordinator
416-480-6100 ext. 1620
Drug
Nabilone for Agitation Blinded Intervention Trial (NAB-IT)
Sign up by: December 31, 2024
Nabilone is a drug that has been shown in previous studies to improve the symptoms of patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's Disease (AD) including agitation in small studies, as well as cognition and caregiver distress, with minimal side effects - a stark contrast to existing and prospective treatments showing various drawbacks. The overall objective of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of nabilone for managing agitation in patients with AD in large multi-center study and to identify biological markers for assessing agitation severity and treatment response. This study will also review whether Nabilone is beneficial for other outcomes, such as overall neuropsychiatric symptoms, caregiver distress, cognition, nutritional status, pain, and global function in patients with moderate-to-severe AD over 9 weeks.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: The regulatory sponsor for this study is Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI), with their Centre for Clinical Trial Support (CCTS) being the coordinating centre for the study. The funding agencies supporting this study are the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), and the Weston Brain Institute (WBI).
Location: In-person (700 Gordon Street, Whitby, ON) and phone
How Often: intake of drug required daily
Compensation: You may be reimbursed for parking or transportation to the clinic.
Contact
Dr. Amer Burhan, Geriatric Psychiatrist
905-430-4055 Ext 6053
Questionnaire
Effect of Cardiac Feedback on Cognition
Sign up by: 30 April 2025
In this project, participants will first undergo a series of pen and paper tasks looking at their thinking abilities, and then partake in a computer task where they look at images of objects and answer questions about those objects. Simultaneously with this task, participants will be monitored through an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram. The goal of this study is to analyze how individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment have differing brain and body activity for cognitive tasks compared to healthy aging individuals.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: This research is funded by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Location: In-person (Baycrest Hospital, 3560 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M6A 2E1)
How Often: A few times a month
Compensation: Yes (Participants will be compensated $15/hour. The study involves two 2-hour sessions, and a 30-minute MRI. For MRI, compensation will be $25.)
Contact: Evi Myftaraj, Researcher
416-803-2469
Technology/Device
Using mobile technology to inform driving decision-making in dementia
Sign up by: February 3, 2025
The purpose of this study is to develop a data-driven decision-making framework to ensure the safety of older adults with mild cognitive impairment or early dementia who continue to drive. The study aims to test the ability of a new Driving Monitoring System to collect naturalistic driving outcomes and distinguish between cognitively intact older drivers, older drivers with mild cognitive impairment, and older drivers with mild dementia. The study also aims to assess the acceptability and usability of the Driving Monitoring System for monitoring driving behavior among people with dementia.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: The International Alzheimer's Association and Brain Canada Foundation
Location: In-person (Calgary Centre for Innovative Technology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 4V8)
How Often: A few times a year
Compensation: $50 cash or a gift card of the same value from Canadian Tire, Shoppers Drug Mart, or Tim Horton's upon completion of the study. Participants will also be compensated for parking during in-person visits.
Contact: Dr. Shahab Alizadeh
Lab Manager at Healthy City Lab; Research Assistant
(587) 973-3930
Diet/Exercise
Nighttime Insomnia Treatment and Education for Canadians with Alzheimer's disease (NITE-CAD)
The purpose of this study to assess the feasibility of a 6-week lifestyle intervention program aimed to improve sleep in people living with dementia and their care partners.
The program consists of three 60-minute educational and group discussion sessions and two phone-call check ins. Participants will be encouraged to engaged in 30 minutes of self-directed physical activity daily, and get 60-minutes of daily exposure to bright light, using a light box provided by the research team.
We hope to determine if the program will be a feasible program to deliver within Canada year-round. In addition, we want to identify challenges in facilitation of the program to improve it for future versions.
Key Details
Study Sponsor: Alzheimer's Society
Location: In-person (340 Hagey Blvd, Waterloo, ON)
How Often: A few times a month
Compensation: No
Contact: Tara Kuhn, PhD Candidate
403-869-9303