View clinical trials related to Movement Disorder.
Filter by:This study will use transcranial magnetic stimulation to examine how the brain controls movement by sending messages to the spinal cord and muscles and what goes wrong with this process in disease. Normal healthy volunteers 18 years of age and older may be eligible to participate. In transcranial magnetic stimulation, an insulated wire coil is placed on the subject's scalp or skin. Brief electrical currents are passed through the coil, creating magnetic pulses that stimulate the brain. During the stimulation, participants will be asked to tense certain muscles slightly or perform other simple actions. The electrical activity of the muscle will be recorded on a computer through electrodes applied to the skin over the muscle. In most cases, the study will last less than 3 hours.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique to gather information about brain function. It is very useful when studying the areas of the brain related to motor activity (motor cortex, corticospinal tract, spinal cord and nerve roots). The procedure is conducted by transmitting a magnetic signal into the brain to stimulate an area of the body. Electrodes (small pieces of metal taped to areas of the body) are used in order to measure electrical activity. A magnetic signal is sent from a metal instrument held close to the patient's head, to an area of the brain responsible for motor activity of a certain area of the body. The electrodes pick up and record the electrical activity in the muscles. This study will employ the use of TMS to diagnose neurological disorders that affect the motor cortex or the corticospinal tract. Normal subjects are sometimes studied to investigate normal activity of the nervous system and to train doctors in clinical neurophysiology and electrodiagnostic medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Myoclonus is a condition related to epilepsy of involuntary twitching or jerking of the limbs. The purpose of this study is to determine if stimulation of the brain with magnetic pulses can decrease myoclonus. Researchers believe that this may be possible because in studies on normal volunteers, magnetic stimulation made areas of the brain difficult to activate for several minutes. In addition, early studies on patients with myoclonus have shown magnetic stimulation to be effective at decreasing involuntary movements. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to stimulate brain activity and gather information about brain function. It is very useful when studying the areas of the brain and spinal cord related to motor activity (motor cortex and corticospinal tract). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) involves the placement of coil of wire (electromagnet) on the patient's scalp and rapidly turning on and off the electrical current. The changing magnetic field produces weak electrical currents in the brain near the coil. This permits non-invasive, relatively localized stimulation of the surface of the brain (cerebral cortex). The effect of magnetic stimulation varies, depending upon the location, intensity and frequency of the magnetic pulses. Researchers plan to use rTMS for 10 days on patients participating in the study. The 10 day period will be broken into 5 days of active repetitive magnetic stimulation and 5 days of placebo "ineffective" stimulation. At the end of the 10 day period, if the results show that rTMS was beneficial, patients may undergo an additional 5 days of active rTMS.
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.