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Motoneuron Recruitment and Motor Evoked Potential Up-Conditioning (MEP) in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

NCT07179822 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 15

Last updated 2025-11-26

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The purpose of this research study is to examine the effect of a brain stimulation training to improve the function of brain-spinal cord- muscle connections. Because brain-to-muscle pathways are very important in our movement control, restoring function of these pathways may improve movement problems after injuries. Spinal cord injury causes damage to the brain-to-muscle connection. However, when the injury is "incomplete", there is a possibility that some of the brain-to-muscle pathways are still connected and may be trained to improve movement function. For examining brain-to-muscle pathways, investigators use a transcranial magnetic stimulator. Investigators hope that the results of this research study will help us develop new treatments for people who have movement disabilities. This study will require about 42 visits over the first 14 weeks, and another 6 visits over an additional 3 months. Each visit will take about 1 ½ hours.

Conditions

  • Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders (SCI/D)
  • Spinal Cord Injury

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Motor Evoked Potential (MEP) Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a method to induce behavioral learning based on the consequence (reward) of the behavior. With operant conditioning of the motor evoked potential (MEP), the neuronal excitability and behavior of the corticospinal pathway that involves production of MEP is targeted and trained (i.e., up-trained with up-conditioning). The individual is rewarded only for changing the target muscle's MEP size without changing background muscle activity. Since MEP size reflects the corticospinal excitability at or just before the time of stimulation, during MEP up-conditioning trials, the individual is urged to increase the corticospinal excitability for the target muscle.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Northwestern University

    collaborator OTHER

  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)

    collaborator NIH

  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

    collaborator NIH

  • Medical University of South Carolina

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Aiko Thompson, PhD · Medical University of South Carolina

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-11-03
Primary Completion
2027-09-30
Completion
2027-09-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Companies

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 NCT07179822 on ClinicalTrials.gov