View clinical trials related to Movement Disorder.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of neurological conditions. Patients participating in this study will continue receiving medical care, routine laboratory tests, and diagnostics tests (X-rays, CT-scans, and nuclear imaging), from their primary care physician. Doctors at the NIH plan to follow these patients and offer advice and assistance to their primary care physicians.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a diagnostic tool that creates high quality images of the human body without the use of X-ray (radiation). MRI is especially useful when studying the brain, because it can provide information about certain brain functions. In addition, MRI is much better than standard X-rays at showing areas of the brain close to the skull and detecting changes in the brain associated with neurological diseases. In this study researchers will use MRI to gather information about the processes that control human movement and sensory processing. The purpose of the study is to investigate how the brain is activated when remembering, thinking, or recognizing objects. Researchers would like to determine what happens to brain functions when patients have trouble remembering, thinking, or recognizing objects following the start of disorders in the brain and nervous system. In addition, this study will investigate the processes of motor control in healthy volunteers and patients with disease.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a technique used to investigate activity in areas of the brain. The PET technique allows researchers to study the normal processes in the brain (central nervous system) of normal individuals and patients with neurologic illnesses without physical / structural damage to the brain. When a region of the brain is active, it uses more fuel in the form of oxygen and sugar (glucose). As the brain uses more fuel it produces more waste products, carbon dioxide and water. Blood carries fuel to the brain and waste products away from the brain. As brain activity increases, blood flow to and from the area of activity also increases. This is known as regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Knowing these facts, researchers can use radioactive water (H215O) and PET scans to observe what areas of the brain are receiving more blood flow. In this study researchers plan to investigate the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as patients participate in different activities. The activities are designed to stimulate the areas of the brain responsible for voluntary motor activity and sensation. By comparing the results of PET scans performed in different conditions, researchers can locate regions of the brain responsible for specific tasks. This study should provide new information about voluntary movements in humans and the preparation involved in controlling them.
This study will collect information on the different ways people control limb and body movements. This information will be used to develop a database on normal movements and adaptive movements of people who have diseases that affect the way they move. The database will serve as a tool to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with movement-related problems. Volunteers from one month old to old age who have normal movement patterns or who have developed different ways to perform movement tasks may be eligible for this study. A physician or physical therapist will screen candidates to determine their strength, flexibility and range of motion of joints. Participants will be asked to perform movements such as walking, walking up or down stairs, standing quietly or reaching for an object or using treadmill. For the test, the arms and legs are wrapped with a soft, rubber-like material to which small plastic reflective balls are attached. A piece of firm material called a shell may be attached to the rubber sleeves or other areas of the body. Then the volunteer performs the specified task several times while special cameras record the movement. These cameras will record the positions of the reflective balls during movement and may show the person s face or body. Electrical activity in the muscles also may be measured, using small metal electrodes attached to the surface of the skin with an adhesive bandage.