# Neurofeedback Processing Speed Training to Improve Social Functioning in Teenagers and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis

> **NIH NIH R33** · HARTFORD HOSPITAL · 2020 · $321,053

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Processing speed deficits are characteristic of schizophrenia and related to its functional
impairment, including in its nascent stages, during a putatively prodromal or clinical high risk
period. These cognitive deficits have proven relatively refractory to pharmacologic strategies,
though the deficits can be improved with cognitive remediation programs in schizophrenia. The
cognitive gains can then generalize to functional improvement, particularly early in the course of
illness (i.e. first episode psychosis). Although processing speed deficits are also prevalent in
young people identified as at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis (i.e. “psychosis risk
syndrome”), and related to their concurrent impaired function and predictive of later psychosis
(onset of which occurs in 20-25% of CHR cohorts), little research has focused on how to
remediate these deficits in CHR patients. Remediating core cognitive deficits in CHR patients
could plausibly address present functional impairment in these young people and moderate
illness progression. We propose to conduct a double-blind randomized trial in 90 CHR patients
to examine a focal processing speed training program versus an active control and a no
treatment control in terms of improvement in processing speed and social function, and
reduction in prodromal symptom severity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9815469
- **Project number:** 5R33MH111850-03
- **Recipient organization:** HARTFORD HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Jimmy Choi
- **Activity code:** R33 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $321,053
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-01-01 → 2021-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9815469

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9815469, Neurofeedback Processing Speed Training to Improve Social Functioning in Teenagers and Young Adults at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (5R33MH111850-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9815469. Licensed CC0.

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