Non-invasive Brain Mapping of Movement Facilitation in Parkinson's Disease

NCT ID: NCT05179187

Last Updated: 2026-01-07

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 90 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-07-06
• Study Completion Date: 2026-09-30

Brief Summary

Several strategies or contexts help patients with Parkinson's disease to move more quickly or normally, however the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena are poorly understood. The proposed studies use complimentary brain mapping techniques to understand the brain mechanisms supporting improved movements elicited by external cues. The central hypothesis is that distinct networks are involved in movement improvement depending on characteristics of the facilitating stimulus. Participants will perform movement tasks during recording of brain activity with EEG and MRI. The identified biomarkers may provide targets for future neuromodulation therapies to improve symptoms that are refractory to current treatments, such as freezing of gait.

Detailed Description

The studies proposed here test the overarching hypothesis that different types of cues (visual targets, rhythmic auditory stimuli and reward incentives) facilitate movement through distinct neuroanatomic circuits and electrophysiological mechanisms, by leveraging known variability in behavioral cueing benefits across patients.

Aim 1 is to demonstrate behavioral dissociations between different forms of movement facilitation within patients and relate variability in cueing benefits to integrity of dissociable neuroanatomic circuits as measured by resting state and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Aim 2 is to characterize the electrophysiological correlates of behavioral benefits for the different cue types using electroencephalography (EEG).

Patients will perform two computer tasks involving reaching and tapping movements during video recording of movements and electrophysiological recording of brain signals. Experimental manipulations involve different computer stimuli that manipulate the presence or absence of sensory and motivational movement cues. The same experimental manipulations are delivered to all individual subjects. 60 patients with Parkinson's disease and 30 healthy controls will perform the task during recording of brain waves from the scalp (EEG) and return for a second session to record brain activity with MRI. Each of the total of 2 sessions will last about 1.5 hours. Patients may be asked to delay taking their morning Parkinson's disease medications and perform clinical rating scales and questionnaires and undergo a movement disorders neurological exam.

Conditions

Parkinson Disease

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Parkinson disease patients

Participants diagnosed with Parkinson's disease

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Movement task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Computer task with experimental conditions manipulating sensory and motivation cues for movement.

Healthy adults

Healthy adult age-matched controls

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Movement task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Computer task with experimental conditions manipulating sensory and motivation cues for movement.

Interventions

Movement task

Computer task with experimental conditions manipulating sensory and motivation cues for movement.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Computer task

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease based on presence of at least 2 cardinal features (tremor, rigidity or bradykinesia) OR healthy adult with no neurologic disease
• Age > 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria

• Dementia as indicated by score on Montreal Cognitive Assessment < 19
• Active hallucinations or psychosis
• Contraindications to MRI (metal implant, claustrophobia)

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of California, Los Angeles

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Kathryn A. Cross, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor in Residence

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

University of California Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

1K23NS119568

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

19-002135

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id