13 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
To study the effects of liraglutide on neural responses to high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in individuals with obesity.
The study is designed to identify specific patterns of brain functional activity associated with chronic, moderate to severe tinnitus through the use of resting-state MEG scans. Robust patterns identified in this study will be used as a biomarker for subsequent clinical evaluation of experimental drug treatments for tinnitus. This study will conduct MEG scans on approximately 30 to 75 subjects with tinnitus and approximately 15 healthy control subjects. MEG scans will be obtained for each subject following screening, clinical and tinnitus evaluations. A subset of 6 subjects from the tinnitus cohort will be invited to undergo evoked auditory assessment during an extended MEG scan session to identify cortical regions that respond to the auditory stimulus. These six subjects also will be evaluated with a single structural MRI scan to support high-resolution mapping of the localized cortical regions. MEG data will be analyzed to identify patterns of brain activity that are specifically associated with the presence of tinnitus using both standard approaches and the Orasi Synchronous Neural Interaction™ (SNI) test. MEG scan results also will be evaluated to identify specific patterns of functional activity that correlate with other measures of tinnitus severity such as the Iowa Tinnitus Handicap Scale. This study will test the hypothesis that moderate to severe tinnitus is associated with altered patterns of brain functional activity measured by a brief, resting-state MEG scan. This hypothesis will be tested by comparing resting-state MEG scans of tinnitus patients with those the of healthy control subjects collected during this study and available in Orasi's existing MEG scan database.
Identifying the correct arrhythmia at the time of a clinic event including cardiac arrest is of high priority to patients, healthcare organizations, and to public health. Recent developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning are providing new opportunities to rapidly and accurately diagnose cardiac arrhythmias and for how new mobile health and cardiac telemetry devices are used in patient care. The current investigation aims to validate a new artificial intelligence statistical approach called 'convolution neural network classifier' and its performance to different arrhythmias diagnosed on 12-lead ECGs and single-lead Holter/event monitoring. These arrhythmias include; atrial fibrillation, supraventricular tachycardia, AV-block, asystole, ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and will be benchmarked to the American Heart Association performance criteria (95% one-sided confidence interval of 67-92% based on arrhythmia type). In order to do so, the study approach is to create a large ECG database of de-identified raw ECG data, and to train the neural network on the ECG data in order to improve the diagnostic accuracy.
A primary focus of the University of Florida (UF) Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (OAIC) is to build a comprehensive understanding of the causes and consequences of declining physical function and disability development among older adults. To date investigators have largely focused on sarcopenia, the age-related decline in skeletal muscle mass and strength, as the primary contributor to physical decline. However, recent findings indicate that changes in the central and/or peripheral nervous systems may play a larger role than previously thought in the development of functional limitations. These fields hold extensive promise for identifying novel contributors to age-related functional decline. Therefore, the overarching aim of this project is to develop the ability of RC1 to assess novel neural contributors to mobility and overall physical function. Importantly, the development of these techniques will provide the RC1 with the tools to evaluate the potential involvement of the central and peripheral nervous systems in age-related functional decline and disablement. The primary aim of this project is to develop techniques for quantifying peripheral motor unit number and size as well as spinal cord integrity.
150 males and 150 females ages 14-17 years-old will be enrolled in an observational, longitudinal study. There are three planned in-person visits: a baseline assessment, an 18-month follow-up, and a 36-month follow-up. The in-person visits will include assessment of substance use and other individual differences (e.g., reward function, psychiatric history), neuromelanin-sensitive MRI, as well as functional brain activation collected while the participant is at rest (resting-state fMRI) and while the participant completes a Monetary Incentive Delay task. Subjects will also be asked to complete past 90-day substance use assessments remotely every 90 days for 36 months.
The language outcome of children receiving cochlear implantation to address bilateral sensorineural hearing loss is more variable than that of typical hearing children. The research is focused upon development of neural predictive models based upon brain imaging to forecast language after cochlear implantation on the individual child level. The long-term goal is improving children's language by using predictive models to enable a custom "predict to prescribe" approach to intervene with more effective behavioral therapy for children at risk to develop poorer language. The investigators previously developed models for short term language outcome of English-learning implanted children. The aims of this study are to 1. Develop models able to predict long term outcome for English- learning and Spanish-learning children; and 2. To evaluate whether English-learning children predicted to achieve lower language based on the investigators' previously constructed models can demonstrate significant gains from Parent Implemented Communication Treatment (PICT). PICT is an intensive parent education program about strategies to improve children's communication.
This study evaluates whether the use of Kinesio Tape® in combination with a standard exercise program improves muscle function in individuals with chronic ankle instability. Twenty participants will receive Kinesio Tape® and perform an ankle exercise program, while twenty will perform the ankle exercise program without Kinesio Tape®.
This mentored student research project is funded by the Graduate Research Partnership Program with a projected timeline for data collection in the summer of 2015. Previous research has shown that language experience alters the way the human brain processes speech information. This phenomenon takes place very early in life and is referred to as Native Language Neural Commitment. For instance, as the Japanese language does not have the l-r speech sound contrast, Japanese infants start to show difficulty in hearing differences between the English l and r sounds at 12 months of age but not when they were at 6 months old. Learning the l-r distinction later in life proves to be very difficult for the Japanese school students and adults. Brain imaging studies have further revealed specific brain regions that are changed by language learning. But the evidence in support of the Native Language Neural Commitment theory is based on cortical-level measures. The proposed study extends the measurement to the subcortical level at the brainstem. The target language that the investigators are interested in studying is Mandarin Chinese, which is known for its use of lexical tones to express different words. For instance, the Chinese syllable "ma" means "mother" when it is spoken with a flat tone, and it means "hemp" when spoken with a rising tone. English, by contrast, does not employ lexical tones, and it is considered a non-tonal language. Does the Chinese learning experience fundamental change the way that pitch information is coded in the human brain? Does it happen at both cortical and subcortical levels? Previous research has shown evidence for a positive answer to both questions. But the direct evidence for brain-behavior correlations at the subcortical level is still missing. The proposed cross-language study will test Chinese-speaking and English-speaking adults to investigate Native Language Neural Commitment at the subcortical level. The investigators are interested in differences in the two subject populations by examining the relationship between brainstem pitch tracking and behavioral pitch perception in linguistic and nonlinguistic stimuli. The results of the proposed project will contribute to the understanding the role of the subcortical brainstem in Native Language Neural Commitment, which have significant implications for the development of auditory/speech training programs and assessment tools utilizing the brainstem frequency following measure to monitor progress in second language learning and test clinical populations.
Dyslexia, an impairment in accurate or fluent word recognition, is the most common learning disability affecting roughly ten percent of children. This proposal capitalizes on cutting edge neuroimaging methods, in combination with reading education programs, to generate a new understanding of how successful reading education shapes the development of the brain circuits that support skilled reading. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms of successful remediation of dyslexia, and individual differences in learning, will pave the way for personalized approaches to dyslexia treatment.
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the brain's activity and organization in the development of speech disorders. It will compare brain activity in people with normal speech development with those who stutter or who have a phonological disorder (a deficit in how the brain processes speech sounds). Stuttering and phonological disorders emerge during the critical period of speech development between 2.5 and 12 years of age. During this period, the brain is much more adaptable for speech development than it is after puberty. This study will examine how the brain organization for speech production and perception develops normally during the critical period and how the normal pattern is altered when stuttering and phonological disorders become chronic problems, persisting throughout life. Volunteer adults and children with and without speech disorders may participate in this study. Eligibility screening will include a brief neurological and physical examination and tests to determine normal speech or a speech disorder. The speech testing will be videotaped. The subject will speak aloud, describe pictures, recall words or numbers, imitate speech sounds and words, and perform some listening tests. Study participants will undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study brain activity. For this procedure, the subject lies on a stretcher that is moved into a donut-shaped machine with a strong magnetic field. During the MRI scan, the subject will perform simple tasks, such as listening to speech or other sounds and saying nonsense words. The procedure should take less than 60 minutes, and usually takes from 20 to 40 minutes.
The purpose of this study is to investigate neurocognitive mechanisms underlying response to intervention aimed at enhancing, and remediating weaknesses in, numerical skills in children, including those with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD).
The purpose of this study is to investigate how mild, noninvasive electrical brain stimulation affects speech relevant brain areas, which may in turn affect speech fluency and speaking-related brain activity in people that stutter. The long-term goal of this study is to test the therapeutic potential of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for the treatment of stuttering. The study team hypothesizes that if stuttering involves impaired initiation of motor programs, delta-tuned tACS will strengthen communication between brain regions and decrease stuttering. Therefore, the study team delta-tuned sensorimotor tACS will be paired with fluency-induced speech (choral reading), which is hypothesized to decrease stuttering via improved auditory motor integration. However, if the primary impairment lies in planning of motor programs, the study team hypothesizes that theta-tuned tACS will strengthen communication between prefrontal and temporal brain regions and decrease stuttering.
The objective of this study is to determine the effects of a 6-month, home-based personalized transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) intervention targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on cognitive function, dual task standing and walking, and other metrics of mobility in older adults with motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR).