The Use of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Study Implicit Motor Learning on Patients With Brain Injury

Phase 1

Withdrawn

• Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury; Stroke
• Interventions: Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

• Registration Number: NCT01127789
• Lead Sponsor: National Taiwan University Hospital

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to study motor learning and recovery of patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). It is hypothesized that anodal tDCS on the lesion side and/or cathodal tDCS on the healthy side of motor cortex could improve the recovery of motor function such as learning.

Detailed Description

We aim to apply transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to study the recovery process of motor learning on the patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke. Both anodal and cathodal tDCS will be used to test whether the increase of motor cortical activity by anodal tDCS over lesional side or the decrease of brain activity by cathodal tDCS on healthy side will improve the learning skill (SRTT: serial reaction time task). The result could help to understand the mechanism of motor and cognitive recovery after brain damage, and further rationalize the application of non-invasive brain stimulation such as tDCS for patient rehabilitation.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-03
• Study First Submitted: 2010-03-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2010-05-20
• Study First Posted: 2010-05-21
• Primary Completion: 2011-03
• Status Verified: 2012-11
• Study Completion: 2012-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-12-20
• Last Update Posted: 2012-12-21

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: WITHDRAWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: Not specified

Inclusion Criteria

• TBI or stroke patients
• with partially preserved fine motor function

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Exclusion Criteria

• with metal clips in head or device (e.g. pacemaker)
• with active CNS drugs

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
non-invasive brain stimulation	Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Reaction time (millisecond)	24 hours post intervention	Primary outcome measure is the average reaction time of 360 trials from each block -- the task is composed of 8 blocks. After intervention, 3 blocks will be re-tested for 3 times to evaluate the consolidating effect of tDCS on motor learning.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Error rate (percentage)	24 hours post intervention	Secondary outcome measure is the error rate of each block which will be re-tested for 3 times after intervention. The aim is to evaluate the motor learning effect during and after tDCS.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Dpt. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, NTUH; 🇨🇳 Taipei, Taiwan