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The purpose of this research study is to learn how a wearable nerve stimulation device, the Spark Biomedical's Sparrow Ascent System™, impacts the development of spatial disorientation and/or motion sickness in a healthy population. Spatial disorientation is when there is a "mismatch" between where a person is, and where the sense organs in their body tell them where they are. These sense organs include the inner ear (the vestibular system), the eyes (the visual system), the sense of where one's legs, back, and neck are (proprioceptive system), and one's higher thinking (cognitive centers). If spatial disorientation is severe or occurs in motion-naïve individuals, spatial disorientation can lead to motion sickness. The Sparrow Ascent System™ is a wearable, battery-operated transcutaneous auricular (ear) neurostimulation (tAN) device. This means that it uses electrical pulses to stimulate branches of nerves on and/or around the ear, specifically the "vagus" and "trigeminal" nerves. These nerves are also responsible for your sensation of nausea and your heart rate (vagus nerve), as well as headaches (trigeminal nerve). The Sparrow System utilizes a flexible earpiece with embedded hydrogel electrodes that stick to the skin, the earpiece is disposable after use. This device is already Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for use in humans and is safely used for control of symptoms in a variety of other medical conditions, such as opioid withdrawal and acute stress reaction. In this study, we will determine if the Sparrow Ascent System™ impacts the development of spatial disorientation or motion sickness.
An open label study to investigate the safety and efficacy of tradipitant in participants affected by motion sickness during travel
The primary specific aim is to evaluate the use of intranasal scopolamine gel and sensory augmentation as an integrated countermeasure to mitigate motion sickness and enhance sensorimotor performance. The proposed intranasal scopolamine gel formulation (Defender Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) offers a safe non-invasive method to self-administer with a rapid onset of action. This study involves a comparison of motion sickness outcome measures when administering intranasal scopolamine gel versus placebo (Aim 1a), and then when administering intranasal scopolamine gel versus placebo with a sensory augmentation belt (Aim 1b).
The primary specific aim of this Field Test aim is to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of administering the intranasal scopolamine gel in operational field settings using both astronaut and ground-control subjects that are exposed to provocative motion as part of their assigned duties. For the ground-control subjects, these may include motion simulations (e.g., centrifuge), parabolic flights and/or Orion capsule recovery operations. Astronaut participants may choose to test Inscop during provocative preflight training exercises (e.g., centrifugation), and can choose to take the medication prophylactically to prevent symptoms or after symptom onset to treat motion sickness during the launch and/or landing mission phases. Both ground-control and astronaut participants will be required to test the medication during a training session to monitor for adverse side effects. Participants in the field test aim will complete short debrief questionnaires to capture motion sickness symptoms, side effects, and feasibility comments. The investigators will also include field "control" subjects who did not take (INSCOP) to comment on what countermeasures subjects used and their effectiveness. The investigators will be recruiting astronaut participants from free-flier missions (e.g., SpaceX Polaris Dawn), Private Astronaut Missions (e.g., Axiom), and standard missions to the International Space Station.
The investigators have developed a self-administered rehabilitation tool that incrementally guides the user to increase head motion to mitigate motion sickness and enhance postural recovery following centrifugation or unilateral vestibular nerve deafferentation surgery.