NCT04088565

VNS-induced Corticospinal Plasticity

Mechanisms of Non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation Underlying Enhanced Motor Control in Humans

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 26 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 75 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to learn more about the connections between the brain, spinal cord, and muscles and how these connections can be strengthened after neurological injury.

Detailed description

Non-invasive stimulation techniques can be used to appropriately time converging inputs to induce changes in cortical output circuits of human primary motor cortex, a neuromodulatory protocol known as paired-associative stimulation (PAS). Experiments seek to examine interactions between cortical PAS and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) to understand the extent to which VNS amplifies cortical plasticity in humans.

Conditions

• Stroke

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Paired-Associative Stimulation (PAS)	Simultaneous activation of connections in motor cortex via stimulation to the nerves and brain.
OTHER	Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)	Recruits the auricular branch of the vagus nerve which activates brain structures that release chemicals mediating cortical plasticity.
OTHER	Sham Stimulation	Sub-threshold stimulation that does not activate neural structures.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-09-22
• Primary completion: 2021-11-09
• Completion: 2021-11-09
• First posted: 2019-09-13
• Last updated: 2022-11-01

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States