NCT07351032

Understanding How Movements Are Transferred From Task to Task in Parkinson's Disease

Neural Mechanism of Skill Transfer in Parkinson's Disease

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 24 (estimated)
• Sponsor: McGill University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to understand how a specific brain area, the Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC), plays a role in movement transfer from walking on a split-belt treadmill (SBT) to walking on the ground in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Here, investigators will apply repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to upregulate the PPC. Then, the differences in the gait parameters between pre- and post-interventions will be compared between the TMS-active and the TMS-sham.

Detailed description

The split-belt training has been shown to modulate gait in PwPD, but the skill transfer from the SBT training to the overground walking is poorly understood. In this project, the subjects will visit the lab on three occasions: day 1 is for the clinical assessment based on the questionnaires, the 10-Meter Walk Task, as well as finding TMS targets and thresholds for the tibialis anterior (TA) and first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscles, day 2 and day 3 are for either rTMS-active or rTMS-sham intervention. The second and third visits will take place at least 48h a part to ensure that the rTMS effects are washed out between visits. During these two visits, the participants will first perform pre-overground walking tests (3 minutes): straight walking, steering, and turning, followed by pre-SBT adaptation tests (4 minutes) where they will adapt their gait to the asymmetrical belt that changes every 30 seconds. After these walking tests, the threshold measured on the first day will be validated, and the cortical excitability of the PPC will be measured by using a dual-coil: one is over the TA hotspot, and the other is over the PPC. Then, rTMS or sham intervention will be performed, followed by measuring the cortical excitability of the PPC. Immediately after that intervention, the participants will train on the SBT for 30 minutes in total (with a one-minute break every 5 minutes) with the speed of the belt changing every 30 seconds. Following the SBT training, the participants will perform post-overground and post-SBT adaptation tests. Lastly, the cortical excitability of the PPC will be measured.

Conditions

• PARKINSON DISEASE (Disorder)

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Active	ACTIVE: intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (a patterned form of rTMS). The participants will receive iTBS (50hz bursts at 5Hz for 600 pulses for a total duration of 3-minutes) over the right PPC at 80% RMT of the FDI.
OTHER	Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Sham	SHAM: 2 coils on top of each other will be used instead of 1. The coil furthest to the head will be reversed. The coil on the head will not be stimulating but the reversed coil will (current directed away from the brain) with stimulate with the same parameters at the active stimulation (intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (a patterned form of rTMS). The participants will receive iTBS (50hz bursts at 5Hz for 600 pulses for a total duration of 3-minutes) over the right PPC at 80% RMT of the FDI.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-11-18
• Primary completion: 2026-05-01
• Completion: 2026-05-01
• First posted: 2026-01-20
• Last updated: 2026-01-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada