How Many Days Would You Want to Practice a Skill to Achieve it?

Motor Learning Clinical Trial

Official title:

How Many Days Would You Want to Practice a Skill to Achieve it?

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03249961
• Other study ID #: 175-2017
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 20, 2018
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: October 2020
• Source: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Practice is required to improve your shot in basketball or to play a musical instrument. The learning of these motor skills can be further enhanced by non-invasively stimulating regions of the brain that control movements with electrical currents. These electric currents can strengthen or weaken connections of the brain, which consequently affects a person's ability to improve their performance on a skill. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is widely applied in many disciplines of neuroscience research, and has potential therapeutic application. There are two specific types of NIBS that will be used in this research study: 1) Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), which applies very weak electrical currents via two rubber electrodes on the scalp, and 2) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which applies magnetic pulses via a coil against the head, to stimulate regions of the brain. Both types of non-invasive brain stimulation (i.e., tDCS, and TMS) are well-tolerated, painless, and safe. The application of tDCS to brain regions that control movements, concurrently with practice of a skill, results in better skill performance, than practice alone with no tDCS. Therefore, in this study, we will be testing different types of brain stimulation and different amounts of practice.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 27
• Est. completion date: August 31, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: August 31, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 44 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy

Exclusion Criteria:

• prior history of neurological or psychiatric disease

• prior experience with the motor task used

• contraindications to TMS and TDCS (e.g., metal implants, history of seizures and headaches)

• musculoskeletal injury to upper limb

• drugs that interact with NIBS (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics, anticonvulsants)

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Motor Learning

Intervention

Device:
• Sham TDCS
Placebo stimulation is applied to the left motor cortex while participants perform a motor task in the right hand. During the motor task, participants use their right hand to pinch a force transducer that controls an on-screen cursor to navigate between a start position and a sequence of 5 other positions to the right.
• Anodal TDCS
Excitatory stimulation is applied to the left motor cortex while participants perform a motor task in the right hand. During the motor task, participants use their right hand to pinch a force transducer that controls an on-screen cursor to navigate between a start position and a sequence of 5 other positions to the right.
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Participants will receive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to allow research investigators to determine the location of the left motor cortex.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center	Toronto	Ontario

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Accuracy	Accuracy is defined as the proportion of trials per block with hits to all targets in the correct sequence order.	Up to 8 days
Primary	Speed	Speed is captured by the average sequence movement time per training block	Up to 8 days