Review

Cognitive interventions to enhance neural compensation in Huntington's disease

Sophie C Andrews

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Juan F Domínguez

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Emily-Clare Mercieca

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Nellie Georgiou-Karistianis

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Julie C Stout

*Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: julie.stout@monash.edu

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Published Online:20 Apr 2015https://doi.org/10.2217/nmt.14.58

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Abstract

SUMMARY

In Huntington's disease (HD), there is growing evidence of neural compensation during neurodegeneration, and that these processes might be modifiable by environmental factors. Cognitive intervention to improve brain function has been trialled only to a very limited extent in HD; however, it has shown promise in other neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we discuss the evidence for the use of cognitive intervention to boost neural compensation in HD, and find it has potential to delay clinical decline, particularly if applied early in the disease process. Randomized controlled trials of cognitive intervention in HD should be implemented as a next step to gauging the efficacy of this approach to improve outcomes for those with the HD gene.

Keywords:

Papers of special note have been highlighted as: • of interest; •• of considerable interest

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Financial & competing interests disclosure

JC Stout reports that during the time period of writing this review, she received consulting fees from Prana Biotechnology, and Stout Neuropsych Pty Ltd (JC Stout, Director) had research contracts from Teva Pharmaceuticals and Omeros. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

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