The Connection Between Areas in the Brain of Blind Patients

Healthy Clinical Trial

Official title:

Connectivity of Occipital and Somatosensory Cortical Areas in Blind Subjects

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00001926
• Other study ID #: 990031
• Secondary ID: 99-N-0031
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: November 3, 1999
• Last updated: March 3, 2008
• Start date: April 1999
• Est. completion date: November 2003

Study information

• Verified date: November 2003
• Source: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: United States: Federal Government
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to test the belief that specific areas of the brain are connected differently in blind patients than patients with sight. In addition, the study will examine the different anatomical connections between brain areas of patients who became blind early in life versus patients who became blind later.

Description:

The purpose of this protocol is to test the hypothesis that the anatomical connectivity of occipital and somatosensory areas in early blind subjects differs from that in subjects who became blind later in life and from that in sighted volunteers.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 45
• Est. completion date: November 2003
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Subjects with late blindness.

Subjects with early blindness.

Sighted volunteers.

Age between 18 and 65 years.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Subjects with personal or family history of seizures or other neurological or demyelinating disorders.

Pregnant women tested after urine pregnancy test.

Subjects with metal in the cranium except mouth.

Subjects with intracardiac lines and implanted medication pumps.

Subjects with increased intracranial pressure as evaluated by clinical means.

Subjects with cardiac pacemakers.

Intake or neuroleptics.

Subjects with blindness secondary to degenerative CNS diseases.

Study Design

N/A

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Blindness
• Brain Mapping
• Healthy

Intervention

Drug:
• O15

Device:
• Cadwell rTMS

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)	Bethesda	Maryland

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (3)

Cohen LG, Bandinelli S, Findley TW, Hallett M. Motor reorganization after upper limb amputation in man. A study with focal magnetic stimulation. Brain. 1991 Feb;114 ( Pt 1B):615-27. — View Citation

Fuhr P, Cohen LG, Dang N, Findley TW, Haghighi S, Oro J, Hallett M. Physiological analysis of motor reorganization following lower limb amputation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1992 Feb;85(1):53-60. — View Citation

Kew JJ, Ridding MC, Rothwell JC, Passingham RE, Leigh PN, Sooriakumaran S, Frackowiak RS, Brooks DJ. Reorganization of cortical blood flow and transcranial magnetic stimulation maps in human subjects after upper limb amputation. J Neurophysiol. 1994 Nov;72(5):2517-24. — View Citation