Brain Activity During Production of Movement

Completed

Conditions studied: Healthy

In brief

This study will use electroencephalography (EEG) to examine how the brain prepares for movement. It will look at 1) what changes occur in a person's brain just before voluntary movement, 2) when the changes occur, 3) how consistent the changes are, and 4) how the changes vary from person to person. The information from this study will be applied to other studies, such as exploring how brain changes that signal movement can be used to control prostheses in patients with spinal cord injuries or stroke. Healthy normal volunteers 18 years of age and older may be eligible for this study. People with neurologic or psychiatric disorders and people taking medicines that may affect brain signals (e.g., Valium) may not participate. Participants will come to the NIH Clinical Center on two separate days for testing sessions of 2 to 3 hours each. At each session, an EEG cap will be placed on the head to record brain signals, and electrodes will be placed on the arms to record movement. Subjects will perform simple movements during the EEG recording, such as flexing their arm of clenching their fist. Researchers will use the first recording to determine the pattern of how the brain prepares for movement. During the second recording, they will try to predict the subjects' movements, based on the patterns discerned in the first recording.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00029939

Run by

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

People needed

140

Starts

2002-01-22

Expected to finish

2010-11-23

Last updated by the study team

2017-07-02

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may not qualify if…

• HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS:
• Subjects who are unable to perform simple voluntary movement with both hands.
• Subjects who have any neurological or psychiatric conditions.
• Subjects who have any implanted metal in or on their bodies that cannot be removed prior to the MRI and MEG scans.
• STROKE PATIENTS:
• We are investigating a particular EEG pattern associated with voluntary movement that we believe may not be present in patients with multiple strokes that involve the cerebral cortex; therefore, we will exclude this population of stroke patients. We will, however, include patients with multiple strokes if the cerebral cortex was not involved because we hypothesize that the EEG pattern that we are looking for will be preserved in patients with sub-cortical stroke lesions.
• A. Patients with MRI findings consistent with brain tumors, trauma or AVMs will be excluded.
• B. Patients with multiple stroke lesions that involve the cerebral cortex will be excluded.
• C. Subjects with a pre-stroke history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorders will be excluded.
• D. Subjects with cancer will be excluded.
• E. Patients not capable of giving an informed consent will be excluded.
• PLS/ALS PATIENTS:
• PLS/ALS patients with a history or evidence of a coexisting or other neurological disorder, such as stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, polio, ataxia or neuropathy, or a history of traumatic brain injury, skull defects or neurosurgery will be excluded. PLS/ALS patients will have neuropsychological tests of frontal cortex function under protocol 06-N-0174. Patients with scores below 133 (out of 144) on the Mattis dementia rating scale will be classified as impaired patients who are unable to give their own informed consent and will be excluded. PLS/ALS patients who are unable to travel will be excluded. PLS/ALS patients who are respirator dependent will be excluded.

Where it is running

• National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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