NCT04168086

Cerebellar Functions in Visuomotor Adaptation

Dissecting Cerebellar Functions in Visuomotor Adaptation With Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 45 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Virginia · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) will be used in this study to functions of the cerebellum in human motor learning. Participants will complete a visuomotor task while receiving stimulation pulses from tFUS. How tFUS stimulation influencing the acquisition and retention of motor memory will be assessed based on group comparison of behavioral measures such as reaching accuracy.

Detailed description

The purpose of this study is to test functions of the cerebellum in human motor learning. The cerebellum has been thought to play critical roles in human motor control and motor learning. Non-invasive brain stimulation studies with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) provided evidence for the involvement of the cerebellum in human motor learning. However, due to limitations in spatial resolution of tDCS and TMS stimulation, it is still unclear what specific functions the cerebellum may have in motor learning, considering the behavioral and anatomical evidence that the cerebellum also has connections with prefrontal cortex and is associated with cognitive functions. By applying transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS), which is a non-invasive brain stimulation technology with great spatial precision, the investigators aim to dissect functions of motor area and non-motor area of the cerebellum in motor learning. Young healthy adults will be recruited and randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups. During learning to adapt to a visual rotation (45 degrees) when reaching for a virtual target, subjects will receive tFUS stimulation over motor area of the cerebellum or non-motor area of the cerebellum depending on the study group. How tFUS stimulation influencing the acquisition and retention of motor memory will be assessed based on group comparison of behavioral measures such as reaching accuracy.

Conditions

• Healthy Participants

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Focused Ultrasound	Low intensity focused ultrasound is sound energy stimulation at a low intensity of 1-30 W/cm2
OTHER	Sham	The investigators will simulate focused ultrasound stimulation similar to the experimental groups but without stimulation.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-01-28
• Primary completion: 2020-01-27
• Completion: 2020-01-27
• First posted: 2019-11-19
• Last updated: 2019-11-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States