ate LTP-like plasticity effects of tDCS in chronic stroke patients

Conditions: Cerebrovascular accident
Stroke
10007963

Registration Number: NL-OMON40977

Lead Sponsor: Erasmus MC, Universitair Medisch Centrum Rotterdam

Brief Summary: Not available

Detailed Description: Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: Pending

Sex: Not specified

Target Recruitment: 80

Inclusion Criteria

Chronic (> 6 months) stroke patient
Aged 18-80 years
Motor deficit in the upper limb due to the stroke

Exclusion Criteria

Being unable to perform the task or to understand the instructions/ apraxia
Presence of intracranial metal
Epilepsy
Alcoholism
Cognitive impairment, or psychiatric disorder
History of psychiatric disorders
Taking acute or chronic psychoactive drugs
Absence of recordable MEPs after TMS
Hemineglect

Study & Design

Study Type: Interventional

Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>The main objective of the study is to determine the effect of late plasticity<br /><br>tDCS on skill learning 24 hours later. As a motor learning paradigm, we will<br /><br>use a circuit tracking task which chronic stroke patients perform better if<br /><br>tDCS is applied concurrently. During this task, patients have to trace a cursor<br /><br>over a circuit as fast and accurate as possible by moving a computer mouse.<br /><br>Skill will be quantified by calculating a combined speed/ accuracy score and<br /><br>compared between sham, conventional unpaired tDCS, conventional paired tDCS and<br /><br>late LTP-like plasticity tDCS groups.</p><br>

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
<p>• To compare excitability changes following late plasticity tDCS in stroke<br /><br>patients with concurrent tDCS stimulation and sham stimulation<br /><br>• To identify improvement in arm/ hand functions unrelated to skill learning<br /><br>and generalization of skill learning to a new circuit with the same arm/hand.<br /><br>• To determine the main effect of several polymorphisms known to be involved in<br /><br>plasticity on skill learning.<br /><br>• To determine if skill learning with the unaffected arm correlates with skill<br /><br>learning with the affected arm.</p><br>