ClinicalTrials.gg
WithdrawnNCT03130647Updated Sep 11, 2017

The Effects of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound on Human Motor Learning

An interventional study of Focused ultrasound in Healthy, sponsored by University of Minnesota. Withdrawn at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-09-11.

Sponsored by University of Minnesota · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science

Why this study was withdrawn
PI Left university
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
0
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) is a form of neuromodulation that uses a single element transducer to produce highly focused low-intensity acoustic energy that can be used to affect cortical excitability in humans.

Read the detailed description

Here the investigator plan to investigate the effect of tFUS on motor behavior. M1 has been chosen for two fundamental reasons for this study: 1) The use of muscle contraction to generate a detectable evoked potential signal allows for targeting of a precise area within M1 with tFUS, and 2) It is known that M1 is involved in fast learning of sequential motor tasks By targeting M1 with tFUS in neurologically healthy volunteers, we can study the effects of tFUS on motor learning measures (e.g., reaction time, accuracy) while a subject is performing a finger tapping motor learning task. If ultrasound is proven efficacious for stimulating the motor cortex, non-surgical ultrasound could potentially replace costly and risky surgery for the treatment of brain disorders as is common with deep brain stimulation for essential tremor or Parkinson's disease. There is currently no way to affect brain tissue deep into the cortex without surgery, genetic alteration or viral vectors (the latter two are not approved for human use). This technology is non-surgical and as invasive as any diagnostic ultrasound exam. With success, transcranial focused ultrasound could become useful world-wide as a cheap, portable and effective tool for human brain mapping efforts as well as for the diagnosis and potential treatment of a broad range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

02

Conditions studied

  • Healthy
03

In context

Lead sponsor

University of Minnesota is the lead sponsor of 1,210 studies on the registry; 194 are open to participants now.

Of its 133 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 92 (69%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • 18 to 65 years of age Provide written informed consent

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Evidence of a current significant medical illness or psychiatric or central or peripheral neurologic disorder History of loss of consciousness of more than ten minutes in the past year or loss of consciousness in a lifetime that required rehabilitation services Personal or family history of seizure Any history of stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) Taking any medications that may decrease the threshold for seizure Pregnancy Affirmative answers to one or more questions of the provided attached safety questionnaires. These are not absolute contraindications to this study but the risk/benefit ratio will be carefully balanced by the PI Left handedness. Failure to follow laboratory or study procedures
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Basic science
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
0 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Focused ultrasound

    Repeated measures sham control

    Device: Focused ultrasound

Interventions

  • DeviceFocused ultrasound

    Focused ultrasound

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Reaction Time

    Reaction time to visual stimulus response task

    Time frame: 4 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Minnesota
    Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — No sharing plan

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Start is estimated for May 2017; primary completion for Jul 2017, 1 month later.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Mar 16, 2017
First posted
Apr 26, 2017
StartEst.
May 15, 2017
Primary completionEst.
Jul 1, 2017
CompletionEst.
Jul 1, 2017
Last update
Sep 11, 2017
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 11, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03130647
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 26, 2017
Start date
May 15, 2017 (estimated)
Primary completion
Jul 1, 2017 (estimated)
Completion
Jul 1, 2017 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 11, 2017

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is withdrawn, as verified in Sep 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion