17 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a complex chronic brain disease characterized by compulsive alcohol use, loss of control over drinking, and negative emotional states. Extensive research has identified the general neural circuitry underlying AUD. There is an exciting opportunity to intervene in AUD using neuromodulation. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) offers a non-invasive method to modulate brain activity, making it a promising tool for investigating, modulating, and potentially treating AUD. However, the precise effects of TMS on neural circuits involved in AUD and the mechanisms underlying these effects must first be understood. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neuroimaging method that provides direct measurement of brain activity within neural circuits with high temporal resolution. Critically, MEG can measure brain activity in a wide range of frequencies that are consistent with those targeted by TMS. The goal of this proposal is therefore to collect preliminary and feasibility data to support a future NIH grant application that would use MEG to investigate TMS effects in individuals with AUD (iAUD).
Background: Brain activity produces magnetic fields. These fields can be measured outside the head. Existing technology, called MEG, measures these fields. Researchers are testing a new type of magnetic field sensor called OPM. They hope it can help pinpoint with very high accuracy where brain activity is generated. Objective: To develop and test a new type of sensor for measuring the magnetic fields produced by brain activity. Eligibility: Healthy people ages 18-65 who had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan under protocol 17-M-0181. Design: Participants may be asked to complete sessions on both the traditional MEG instrument and the OPM array. For the MEG, 3 small coils will be placed on the participant s face with tape. Their head will be positioned inside the MEG device. For the OPM, sensors are housed in a 3d printed array. The sensors will be attached to a cap placed on the participant s head. For both scans, participants will be seated in a chair inside a magnetically shielded room. They may complete several tasks. In one task, plastic cells will be placed on their fingers. Puffs of air will be sent to these cells, which will stimulate the sense of touch. Other tasks may include the following stimuli: visual (such as checkerboards), auditory (such as beeps and tones), or language (words and letters). Researchers may also obtain recordings while they stimulate the nerve in the participant s forearm using electrical current in small electrodes. Participation is expected to last for 1 day. Additional optional scans may be offered for up to 1 year....
The long-term purpose of the investigator's research is to understand the pathophysiological basis of chronic pain. This will help provide a framework for the development of effective treatments. The purpose of this specific study is to find if there are abnormal brain rhythms in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) who are in pain since this will indicate particular types of treatments. FM is a disorder of the muscles and/or joints, and patients experience sever fatigue. FM occurs more often in women than in men (3.4% of women, 0.5% of men). The diseases can appear at any age, but in most of the cases it occurs in women of childbearing age. FM is considered a chronic pain condition since the pain is persistent. Pain and tenderness can be widespread throughout the body. FM patients are more sensitive to sound and pressure stimulation than healthy controls, indicating that there may be changes in the brain. Also, pain is made worse under conditions of stress. Treatments for FM pain include life style changes such as exercise, dietary changes, cognitive-behavioral therapy, medications and even surgery, but there is no accepted "best" treatment. This is partly because the underlying cause of the pain is not well understood. The design of this study is to record brain activity to find if there are abnormal brain rhythms in people with FM that are not present in healthy adults of the same age. Specifically, the investigators will test the hypothesis that constant low frequency oscillations will be present in patients with chronic pain due to FM. This has been found in people with other types of pain and is called Thalamocortical Dysrhythmia (TCD). The study has two parts. In the first part, a complete medical history will be obtained, including a description of the person's pain. In the second part the investigators will use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to non-invasively record brain activity. The MEG data will be analyzed in terms the presence of normal alpha rhythm and abnormal low and high frequency oscillations. Each person will have an MRI so the investigators can localize the rhythms recorded by the MEG in the person's brain using their MRI. The people who record and analyze the MEG recordings will not know if the person is a healthy control or a FM patient. The two parts will be joined to test the hypothesis and find if there is a correlation between the people with abnormal low frequency brain rhythms and the presence or degree of pain.
This follow-up study is designed to obtain longitudinal clinical and MEG scan data to gain information on Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression, the stability of healthy control (HC) MEG scan data, to enrich the Orasi database of AD and HC subjects, and is intended to extend the capabilities of the Synchronous Neural Interaction® (SNI) test, which is under development by the sponsor, Orasi Medical. The current study is intended to extend the database of AD and HC MEG scans and will include patients who previously enrolled and completed Orasi Protocol ADG 08-01. This study will include MEG scans on up to approximately 50 AD subjects and 70 HC subjects. Additionally, AD subjects will complete 3 standard functional tests while HC subjects will complete 2 standard functional tests. ApoE genotyping also will be determined for all subjects. The results generated in this study will be used to improve the accuracy of the SNI test for diagnosing and tracking the progression of AD.
The current study is intended to enrich and extend the database of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and healthy control (HC) MEG scans and will include patients meeting DSM-IV-TR criteria for dementia of Alzheimer's type, and age- and gender-matched HC subjects meeting criteria of normal neurological function. This study will include 2 MEG and electroencephalography (EEG) scans on approximately 80 AD subjects and 80 HC subjects over approximately 30 days. All subjects will have MEG/EEG scans at baseline and 28 - 35 days after baseline. Within one day of each scan visit AD subjects will undergo 4 standard functional tests while HC subjects will undergo 2 standard functional tests. This study will test the following hypotheses: * MEG scans of resting-state, eyes-open brain function reveal patterns of correlated activity that differ between HC subjects and subjects diagnosed with dementia of Alzheimer's type; * Patterns of correlated activity measured in AD subjects correspond to other measures of disease severity such as standard functional test scores; * MEG scan patterns for HC subjects are consistent across repeated measures taken over a 30 day period.
This placebo-controlled crossover study is intended to measure the effect of three, common neuroactive medications on brain activity measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG). This study will conduct MEG and EEG scans as well as simple cognition testing on 15 healthy volunteers over 4 study days. Subjects will receive placebo on one of the study days, and either 100 mg modafinil p.o., 20 mg methylphenidate p.o., or 1 mg lorazepam p.o. on remaining study days. Medication administration will be randomized according to study day so that each subject will receive the medications in random order. Brain activity will be measured by MEG and EEG in each subject a total of 4 times each study day: prior to medication administration and 2, 4, and 6 hours after medication administration. Cognition testing will be performed at pre-medication baseline and immediately after each post-medication scan time. This study will test the hypothesis that changes in brain functional activity can be accurately measured in healthy volunteer subjects after single, acute doses of modafinil, methylphenidate and lorazepam.
The primary objective of this protocol is to test the feasibility and utility of obtaining magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings in healthy children and also in children who have a psychiatric or developmental disorder. Secondary objectives are to examine and compare typical and atypical motor, sensory, and cognitive functioning as recorded by MEG, and to identify subpopulation groups for which MEG may be optimal in order to establish feasibility of future hypothesis-driven MEG research.
The specific aim of this proposal is to investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms of oxytocin's (OT) prosocial effects in patients with schizophrenia and healthy subjects using magnetoencephalography. Hypothesis A: When OT is administered to patients with schizophrenia, fear-related amygdala hyperreactivity and fusiform gyrus (FG) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) hypoactivity will be normalized. Hypothesis B: When OT is administered to patients with schizophrenia, the decreased functional connectivity (FC) between the amygdala, FG, and ACC will be normalized. By elucidating the neurophysiological mechanisms of OT administration on emotional face processing, investigators will bee able to: 1. understand the pathophysiology of the functionally debilitating social cognitive deficits of schizophrenia, 2. test the efficacy of OT in normalizing the neural abnormalities underlying these social deficits, and 3. develop and optimize novel treatments for these currently untreatable deficits.
This study utilizes multimodal brain imaging to obtain quantitative biomarkers of brain injury and to improve understanding of the biological basis of brain pathology in adolescents with concussion. Adolescents with a concussion will undergo neuroimaging and neuropsychology assessments acutely and four months after injury.
The objective of this study is to utilize high-frequency brain signals (HFBS) to localize functional brain areas and characterize HFBS in epilepsy, migraine, and other brain disorders. Our goal is to create the world's first high-frequency MEG/EEG/ECoG/SEEG database for the developing brain. HFBS include high-gamma activation/oscillations, high-frequency oscillations (HFOs), ripples, fast ripples, spikelets, fast spikelets, and very high-frequency oscillations (VHFOs). While terminologies and frequency bands may vary among reports, both HFOs and high-gamma waves are crucial for understanding brain function and developing potential treatments for neurological disorders. We have been developing an intelligent software platform to analyze signals from low to very high-frequency ranges across multiple frequency bands. To achieve these goals, we have developed several innovative techniques and software packages: * Accumulated spectrogram * Accumulated source imaging * Frequency-encoded source imaging * Multi-frequency analysis at source levels * Artificial intelligence detection of HFOs * Neural network analysis (Graph Theory) * Other techniques (e.g., Independent Component Analysis, virtual sensors) These methods enable researchers to better understand the characteristics and significance of HFOs and high-gamma brain waves, contributing to advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.
The purpose of this study is to use non-invasive brain imaging methods (MEG and EEG) to characterize the effects of THC on brain activity during learning.
The primary purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of the Magnetoencephalography (MEG) instrument to record electrical activity from parts of the body other than the brain. This study will examine if electrical activity from parts of the body, other than the brain, can be imaged by the MEG instrument. Finding will contribute to studies of pain, since abnormal electrical activity in skeletal muscle is the basis of pain, which can be severe, yet there is no non-invasive way to image this abnormal activity. This is particularly relevant to deep muscle pain and back pain.
Background: * An absence seizure is a type of seizure that usually begins in childhood and goes away by early adulthood. Scientists do not yet know where absence seizures begin in the brain. Some evidence suggests that these seizures begin in the thalamus, a structure deep in the brain, but other studies suggest that they begin in the frontal cortex, at the front part of the brain. * Magnetoencephalography is a type of brain scanning procedure that is useful in determining information about what happens to the brain during epileptic seizures. Understanding where absence seizures come from may help doctors find new treatments for them. Objectives: * To gain a better understanding of which parts of the brain are affected in absence seizures. Eligibility: * Patients 7 to 35 years of age who have been diagnosed with absence seizures. Design: * Procedures are for research purposes only, not to diagnose or treat a particular medical condition. * Two outpatient visits to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center: evaluation and scanning. * Researchers will evaluate potential participants with a medical history, physical examination, and electroencephalography (EEG). These tests will be performed under another protocol, 01-N-0139. * Patients will undergo magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. The study procedures will be performed one time; however, an MEG or MRI scan may need to be repeated for technical reasons. Researchers will not do more than two MEG or MRI scans. * The MEG will record very small magnetic field changes produced by the activity of the brain. An EEG will be recorded at the same time as the MEG. * The MRI will use a magnetic field to take pictures of the inside of the brain. * The MEG will take 3 hours to complete (2 hours for preparation, 1 hour in the scanner). The MRI will take approximately 1 hour.
This study will evaluate how the state of being completely deprived of sleep has an effect on recordings of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), in relation to how alert someone is and how sleepy someone perceives himself or herself to be. EEG measures electronic potential differences on the scalp. On the other hand, MEG is a non-invasive technique for recording the activity of neurons in the brain, through recording of magnetic fields caused by synchronized neural currents. It has the ability to detect seizures. Because magnetic signals of the brain vary, this technique must balance two key problems: weakness of the signal and strength of the noise. The EEG is sensitive to extra-cellular volume currents, whereas the MEG primarily registers intra-cellular currents. Because electrical fields are quite dependent on the conductive properties of the tissues, and magnetic fields are significantly less distorted by tissue, the MEG has better spatial resolution. There is a great deal of evidence that EEG and MEG provide complementary data about underlying currents of ions. The complex relationship of sleep and epilepsy is well known. Sleep has been used for many years as a powerful EEG activator. Many researchers have supported the hypothesis that there is a specific activating effect of sleep deprivation on epileptic discharges. Sleep deprivation is defined as a sleepless state of longer than 24 hours. The increased use of MEG in diagnosis could improve the procedure for evaluating patients before surgery for epilepsy, by making invasive studies less necessary. Patients 18 years of age or older, with a diagnosis of epilepsy and with a documented last routine EEG (at least 2 weeks earlier) and routine EEG on the day of a baseline MEG-EEG without interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) may be eligible for this study. Participants will be rated according to the Epworth, Stanford, and Karolinska Sleepiness Scales, to determine their subjective sleepiness. They will be randomly assigned to stay awake all night or sleep in the hospital overnight. That is, a sleep deprivation and non-sleep deprivation synchronized MEG-EEG recording will be performed in random order. Then the sequence of sleep deprivation and non-sleep deprivation will be reversed within 14 to 21 days. During the recordings, the patient will either sit or lie with his or her head in a helmet covering the entire head, with openings for the eyes and ears. Brain magnetic fields will be recorded with a 275-channel OMEGA system. Throughout the session, visual and two-way audio communication will be maintained with the patient. Recording sessions will last 90 to 180 minutes, with the patient allowed to take breaks after at least 10 minutes in a scanner. Attempts will be made to encourage patients to stay awake and sleep for about the same amount of time during each recording, to acquire comparable amounts of sleep and awake recordings.
This study will evaluate the magnetoencephalography (MEG) alone and together with electroencephalography (EEG) in non-invasive presurgical evaluation. It will look at the contribution of those methods in determining the location of the epilepsy seizure, compared with doing so through an invasive method. EEG measures electronic potential differences on the scalp. On the other hand, MEG is a non-invasive technique for recording the activity of neurons in the brain, through recording of magnetic fields caused by synchronized neural currents. It has the ability to detect seizures. Because magnetic signals of the brain vary, this technique must balance two key problems: weakness of the signal and strength of the noise. The EEG is sensitive to extra-cellular volume currents, whereas the MEG primarily registers intra-cellular currents. Because electrical fields are quite dependent on the conductive properties of the tissues, and magnetic fields are significantly less distorted by tissue, the MEG has better spatial resolution. There is a great deal of evidence that EEG and MEG provide complementary data about underlying currents of ions. Patients 18 years of age or older who have epilepsy that is not relieved, and who are considered candidates for surgery and who accept epilepsy surgery, may be eligible for this study. Before they have surgery, participants will either sit or lie down, with their head in a helmet covering the entire head, with openings for the eyes and ears. Brain magnetic fields will be recorded with a 275-channel OMEGA system. Throughout the session, visual and two-way audio communication will be maintained with the patient. Acquiring data from the participant will be conducted during several sessions, each lasting from 10 to 60 minutes, not exceeding a total of 120 minutes. If the first recording is not of sufficient quality, the patient may have it repeated once or twice. Those participants who are found to have a clear seizure focus will proceed directly to surgery that is part of their treatment. Those whose seizure focus is ambiguous will proceed to invasive monitoring. Participants will be followed in the outpatient clinic at intervals of 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. They may periodically undergo reimaging as considered appropriate.
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a therapy called High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) for the treatment of the language deficits experienced by people with a type of Primary Progressive Aphasia. This study uses a combination of brain imaging, language assessment, language training sessions, and HD-tDCS therapy as well as placebo therapy sessions.
Botulinum toxin injection in the contracting muscles has proven to be a safe and effective method of relieving pain and lessening dystonic posturing. The current hypothesis is that botulinum toxin works on altering sensory input in the central nervous system in addition to its effects on the neuromuscular junction. Magnetoencephalography (MEG)of brain has been used in dystonia such as writer's cramp and musician's hand dystonia. However, no study has investigated the correlation of central signal changes via magnetoencephalography before and after treatment with botulinum in torticollis patients. Prior studies using somatosensory potentials indicated the possibility of differential activation of precentral cortex in patients with cervical dystonia. Cervical dystonia may result from a disorder of both cortical excitability and intracortical inhibition. The investigators hypothesis is that botulinum injection modulates central inhibition which improves clinical outcome for torticollis.