Learning in Stroke

NCT ID: NCT05511467

Last Updated: 2025-10-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-09-01
• Study Completion Date: 2025-09-30

Brief Summary

After a stroke, plasticity occurs in the brain from microscopic to network level with positive but also negative consequences for functional recovery. Why post-stroke plasticity takes a beneficial or a maladaptive direction is still incompletely understood. Because the biological mechanisms underlying sensorimotor learning parallel those observed during recovery, learning mechanisms could be potential modifiers of post-stroke neuroplasticity and have a discrete mal-/adaptive impact on the recovery of sensorimotor function. This project seeks to further the understanding of the link between brain circuits that control the integration of new information during procedural learning in the injured brain and those circuits that are involved in adaptive plastic changes during recovery of sensorimotor function post-stroke. The project's methodological approach will allow the characterization of procedural learning-related neural network dynamics based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in human volunteers with and without neurologically impairment post-stroke. Through multivariate integration of behavioral and biological descriptors of sensorimotor recovery, the project will investigate the association between motor learning-related network dynamics and descriptors of recovery.

Conditions

Stroke; Sensorimotor Impairment

Study Design

• Observational Model Type: CASE_CONTROL
• Study Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

stroke group

Visuomotor learning task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of the visuomotor learning task. The visuomotor learning task involves holding a device in the hand that measures the strength of the grip when squeezing the 'gripper'.

control group

Visuomotor learning task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of the visuomotor learning task. The visuomotor learning task involves holding a device in the hand that measures the strength of the grip when squeezing the 'gripper'.

Interventions

Visuomotor learning task

Participants undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of the visuomotor learning task. The visuomotor learning task involves holding a device in the hand that measures the strength of the grip when squeezing the 'gripper'.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

For all participants:

• adult volunteers (age ≥18 years)
• right-hand dominance as defined by the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory

• ischemic or hemorrhagic lesion
• subcortical or cortical tissue involvement
• chronic phase (>6 months) after their index lesion
• voluntary whole-hand grip force (MRC, Medical Research Council scale for muscle force ≥2)
• repeated release (standardized as a reduction of 50% of maximum voluntary contraction measured with a dynamometer)

Exclusion Criteria

For all participants:

• Presence of any MRI risk factors
• substance use disorder
• psychotic disorders

• Primary intracerebral hematoma
• subarachnoid hemorrhage
• bi-hemispheric or cerebellar strokes
• other concomitant neurological disorders affecting upper extremity motor function
• documented history of dementia before or after stroke
• severe aphasia, particularly of receptive nature (NIHSS Language subsection ≥2), affecting their ability to understand the purpose of the study and give informed consent
• uncontrolled hypertension despite treatment
• intake of tricyclic anti-depressants or neuroleptic medication.

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

Sponsors

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Medical University of South Carolina

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Medical University of South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Document Type: Informed Consent Form

View Document

Other Identifiers

5P20GM109040-10

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

00116626

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id