Clinical Research

Our Research

A rigorous, real-world clinical trial designed to generate publishable evidence on dementia intervention.

Do brain stimulation activities and nutritionally dense food slow the progression of dementia as measured by cognitive language assessments?

How the trial works

Trials are hosted at partner care homes on a weekly basis. The care home provides space and access to participants; Captain’s Chair provides the platform, the meal, and the research protocol.

  • 8–12 week randomized controlled trial
  • Weekly in-person sessions at partner care homes
  • Intervention group receives brain stimulation games + nutritional meal plans
  • Control group receives standard care
  • Participants: community members with early-stage dementia recruited through partner care homes
  • Sample size scalable based on grant funding — starting with 1–3 partner homes

What we measure

Primary Outcome

Change in cognitive language expression on a validated picture description task, assessed at baseline, midpoint, and end of trial.

Secondary Outcomes

Memory recall, verbal fluency, mood, and caregiver-reported quality of life. Dietary compliance data is correlated with cognitive assessment outcomes.

Data Review

All collected data will be submitted for independent academic review, providing a pathway to peer-reviewed publication and establishing credibility with grant bodies.

Assessment instruments

All assessment tools are grounded in peer-reviewed literature and validated for use in dementia research.

Boston Cookie Theft Task

The foundational picture description paradigm for our cognitive assessment engine. Participants describe a scene verbally; our technology analyzes their language over time to track changes in cognitive expression.

Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)

A widely validated screening tool for mild cognitive impairment. Administered at baseline and end of trial to provide a standardized, comparable measure of overall cognitive function.

Verbal Fluency Measures

Phonemic and semantic fluency tasks that measure executive function and language retrieval — areas particularly sensitive to early-stage dementia progression.

Mood & Quality of Life

Standardized mood and quality-of-life measures completed by participants and reported by caregivers, capturing the broader impact of the intervention beyond cognitive performance alone.

Why this research matters

There is limited existing evidence on combined nutrition and cognitive stimulation interventions — particularly in real-world care settings rather than controlled laboratory environments.

Captain’s Chair is designed to fill that gap with credible, publishable clinical data collected in actual care homes from community members with early-stage dementia who might not otherwise have access to structured research programs.

The trial’s real-world setting, rigorous methodology, and partnerships with established care homes make it both scientifically credible and fundable.

Target Canadian grant bodies

CIHR — Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Primary federal health research funder

ASRP — Alzheimer Society Research Program

Dementia-specific research grants

AGE-WELL NCE

Aging and technology research network

Ontario Brain Institute

Ontario-based neuroscience and dementia research