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CONTROL Walking Study

NCT03790657 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 72

Last updated 2025-09-22

Study results available
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Summary

Older adults often experience substantial deficits in walking ability, especially for walking tasks that are more complex such as obstacle crossing. This is due in part to changes in the brain that make performance of physical and cognitive tasks more difficult. Rehabilitation can help to improve walking ability, but effective rehabilitation is time consuming and expensive. New approaches are needed to improve the efficiency of rehabilitation so that gains in walking ability are widely attainable. A promising strategy is to focus on enhancing motor learning, which is defined as improved ability to perform a motor task due to practice or experience. The investigators will investigate the use of non-invasive brain stimulation to increase motor learning and retention of the newly learned walking skills. The investigators will also use neuroimaging to assess brain characteristics that explain how motor learning works. The knowledge gained from this study is expected to contribute to better understanding of mechanistic targets and intervention approaches to improve rehabilitation of walking.

Conditions

  • Aging

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

practice of a complex walking task

walking over obstacles

DEVICE

Active transcranial direct current stimulation (Active tDCS)

mild electrical stimulation delivered to the frontal region of the brain

DEVICE

Sham transcranial direct current stimulation (Sham tDCS)

30 seconds of mild electrical stimulation delivered to the frontal region of the brain

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • VA Office of Research and Development

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • David J. Clark, DSc · North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System, Gainesville, FL

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2019-08-01
Primary Completion
2024-08-01
Completion
2024-08-01
FDA Device
Yes

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03790657 on ClinicalTrials.gov