NCT06961864

Investigating Brain Function in People With and Without Visual Snow Syndrome Using Adaptation to Visual Stimuli

Visual Perception in Visual Snow Syndrome

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 100 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Minnesota · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to learn more about the brain pathways and activity involved in creating Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS). The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does VSS arise from spontaneous activity in brain pathways? * Where in the brain does the activity contributing to VSS arise? * How does brain activity contribute to VSS? Participants will: 1. Undergo assessments and questionnaires to understand visual and mental symptoms, cognitive, and sensory function. 2. Make visual judgements based on images presented to them both inside and outside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. 3. Undergo scanning of their brain while inside of an MRI machine.

Conditions

• Visual Snow Syndrome
• Migraine
• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Visual Adaptation	Presentation of visual stimuli to quantify the appearance of visual snow or its effects in the visual system of the brain.
BEHAVIORAL	Assessments and Questionnaires	Administration of clinical assessments and questionnaires to gather information about visual and mental symptoms, cognitive, and sensory function.
DEVICE	Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)	7 tesla fMRI data will be acquired during visual paradigms designed to measure neural responses with and without adaptation.
DEVICE	Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRS)	7 tesla MRS data will be acquired to quantify the concentrations of different brain chemicals in brain regions including visual cortex.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-04-11
• Primary completion: 2030-03-31
• Completion: 2030-03-31
• First posted: 2025-05-08
• Last updated: 2026-01-14

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States