Physiology of Interregional Connectivity in the Human Brain

Status unconfirmed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Healthy, Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury, Multiple Sclerosis

In brief

The purpose of this study is to understand the physiology of connectivity between cortical regions in the human brain in healthy participants and in patients with white matter lesions. Specifically, the investigators will examine the effects of paired associative stimulation (PAS) which consists in delivering brief (\< 1 ms) current pulses separated by a short millisecond-level time interval ("asynchrony") to two cortical areas. The used techniques are all non-invasive and considered safe in humans: transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electroencephalography (EEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and functional MRI (fMRI). Based on prior literature in animals and human studies, it is hypothesized that PAS may increase or decrease effective connectivity between the stimulated areas depending on the asynchrony value. The main outcome measure is source-resolved EEG responses evoked by single-pulse TMS; this is a more direct measure of neuronal changes occurring at the targeted cortical area than motor evoked potentials (MEPs) or sensor-level EEG responses used in previous studies.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT03723434

Run by

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

People needed

76

Starts

2017-05-31

Expected to finish

2020-11-01

Last updated by the study team

2018-10-29

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 85. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Inclusion Criteria for Healthy Participants:
• Age from 18 to 85 years
• Right-handed
• Normal hearing and (corrected) vision
• Able to understand and give informed consent
• English speaker
• Inclusion Criteria for Patients:
• Age from 18 to 85 years
• Stroke (ischemic subcortical, intermediate level, chronic phase 3 weeks or more from lesion)
• TBI (closed-skull, intermediate level, chronic phase 3 weeks or more from lesion)
• MS (white matter subcortical lesion)
• Clinical and radiological evidence supporting the above diagnoses
• One or more behavioral symptoms possibly linked to the white matter lesion(s)
• Stable medical condition
• English speaker

You may not qualify if…

• Exclusion Criteria for Healthy Participants:
• Cardiac pacemaker or pacemaker wires; neurostimulators; implanted pumps
• Metal in the body (rods, plates, screws, shrapnel, dentures, IUD) or metallic particles in the eye
• Surgical clips in the head or previous neurosurgery
• Any magnetic particles in the body
• Cochlear implants
• Prosthetic heart valves
• Epilepsy or any other type of seizure history
• Any neurological diagnoses or medications influencing brain function
• History of significant head trauma (i.e., extended loss of consciousness, neurological sequelae)
• Known structural brain lesion
• Significant other disease (heart disease, malignant tumors, mental disorders)
• Significant claustrophobia; Ménière's disease
• Pregnancy (ruled out by urine ß-HCG if answers to screening questions suggest that pregnancy is possible), breast feeding
• Non prescribed drug use
• Failure to perform the behavioral tasks or neuropsychological evaluation tests
• Prisoners
• Exclusion Criteria for Patients:
• Same as above, excluding the requirement of no structural brain lesion, and medications influencing brain function are allowed
• Patients with cortical lesions or CSF-filled cysts/cavities near the TMS sites
• MS patients with acute exacerbation

Where it is running

• Shirley Ryan AbilityLab — Chicago, Illinois, United States (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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