Cervical Spinal Cord Associative Plasticity

Summary

Associative plasticity has been used to promote functional recovery from conditions affecting movement. Prior work from the Carmel laboratory has shown that paired associative stimulation protocols timed to converge in the cervical spinal cord induce significantly larger upper limb motor responses than if timed to converge in the motor cortex.

The goal of this prospective experimental study in typically developing adults is to test the effects of pairing sub-threshold hand motor cortical and median nerve stimulation targeted to induce plasticity in the cervical spinal cord, rather than in the motor cortex. Based on preliminary data, the investigators are performing a confirmatory study to test the physiological and behavioral effects of the paired brain and peripheral nerve protocol, called the SCAP-Nerve protocol.

This study will first be conducted in typically developing adults to confirm the cervical spinal cord as the ideal target and verify the present stimulation parameters are sufficient to promote induction of associative plasticity of sensorimotor connections for manual dexterity. The outcomes from this study could then be translated to efficacy studies in people with spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy to promote clinically meaningful improvements in dexterity.

Conditions

• Cervical Spinal Cord Plasticity

Interventions

OTHER

SCAP

This utilizes pairing of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and peripheral nerve stimulation (rPNS) timed to converge in the cervical spinal cord.

DEVICE

MagPro X100

This stimulator will be use to provide repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).

DEVICE

Digitimer DS8R

This stimulator will be used to provide repetitive peripheral nerve stimulation (rPNS).

OTHER

Paired non-associative stimulation

This utilizes pairing of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and peripheral nerve stimulation (rPNS) timed to arrive at a pairing interval of 40 msec.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Columbia University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jason Carmel, MD, PhD · Columbia University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-05-09

Primary Completion

2028-12-31

Completion

2029-06-30

FDA Device

Yes

Countries

• United States

Study Locations