NCT06822283

Plasticity of Deep Brain Structures in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Healthy Aging

Investigation of the Plasticity of Deep Brain Structures in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Healthy Aging (PlasMA)

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 19 (actual)
• Sponsor: Friedhelm Hummel · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Acute and chronic cognitive impairment (TBI and MCI) is one of the most common problems in the growing and aging society of the 21st century. At an individual level, not all brain structures are affected with the same rate. There are subcortical structures less involved (e.g., the cerebellum), and other more involved (e.g., the hippocampus) in the cognitive decline with age or following a traumatism. To pave the way for personalized precision medicine in the field of cognitive preservation and recovery, there is a need for testing the impact of individually tailored innovative non-invasive neuro-technologies. In this project, we aim at testing the benefit of non-invasively stimulating subcortical structures to boost resilience in supporting motor and non-motor memory.

Conditions

• Traumatic Brain Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	transcranial electric stimulation	tTIS is an innovative non-invasive brain stimulation approach, in which two or more independent stimulation channels deliver high-frequency currents in the kHz range (oscillating at f1 and f1 + Δf). These high-frequency currents are assumed to be too high to effectively modulate neuronal activity. Still, by applying a small shift in frequency, they result in a modulated electric field with the envelope oscillating at the low-frequency Δf (target frequency) where the two currents overlap. The peak of the modulated envelope amplitude can be steered towards specific areas located deep in the brain, by tuning the positions of the electrodes and the current ratio across stimulation channels. Here, we applied tTIS via surface electrodes applying a low-intensity (2mA baseline to peak), sub-threshold protocol following the safety guidelines for low-intensity transcranial electric stimulation in humans.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-09-15
• Primary completion: 2024-02-02
• Completion: 2024-02-02
• First posted: 2025-02-12
• Last updated: 2025-02-12

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: Switzerland