Brain Networks Responsible for Sense of Agency
Completed
Conditions studied: Spatiotemporal Patterns
In brief
This study of healthy normal volunteers will examine the brain networks involved in people's sense that they control their own movements (sense of agency). Although almost everyone has a sense of agency, some patients (for example, patients with schizophrenia, alien limb phenomena, and others) have movements they think are not under their control. This study will use electroencephalography (EEG) to determine how the normal brain produces the sense of agency. This information will provide a first step in understanding patients with an impaired sense of agency. Healthy, right-handed men and women 18 years of age and older may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history and neurological examination. Participants are fitted with a cyberglove device (a lightweight glove with flexible sensors that measure the position and movement of the fingers and wrist) on their right hand. The glove is used to transform the subject's hand and finger motions into real-time digital joint-angle information. Subjects slowly open and close their hand while watching an artificial hand projected on a monitor. They continue practicing the exercise until they are comfortable with the cyberglove and have the sense that the artificial hand is a mirror representation of their own hand, accurately reflecting their hand's movements. After practicing with the cyberglove, subjects have a functional EEG. For this test, electrodes are placed on the scalp, and brain waves are recorded while the subject opens and closes his or her hand or just watches the computer monitor. The EEG recording takes about 60 minutes. ...
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT00283907
- Run by
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
- People needed
- 20
- Starts
- 2006-01-27
- Expected to finish
- 2008-12-16
- Last updated by the study team
- 2017-07-02
Who can join
Age: 18 and older, up to 80. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may not qualify if…
- Subjects with any abnormal findings on neurological exam
- Subjects with any history of brain tumor, stroke, head trauma or a vascular malformation as obtained by history or from imaging studies
- Subjects with any history of a severe medical condition, such as cardiovascular disease, which would prevent them from sitting for up to 120 minutes
- Subjects without the capacity to give informed consent
- Subjects with other restrictions which prevent them from undergoing EEG recordings for up to 60 minutes
- Subjects who are taking neuroleptic medications
- Subjects are not eligible for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan, if the subjects have pacemakers, intracardiac line, implanted metallic pump, neural stimulator, or a metallic object inside the skull, metal braces, cochlear devices, surgical clips and other metal/magnetic implants; are afraid of being in small spaces; are pregnant
Where it is running
- National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike — Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.