ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05622344SWANUpdated Sep 8, 2026

StableEyes With Active Neurofeedback

An interventional study of Traditional Therapy and SWAN in Vestibular Disorder, Vestibular Schwannoma and Space Motion Sickness, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. Recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years to 70 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-08.

Sponsored by Johns Hopkins University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Registered 3 months after the study started (first participant enrolled Aug 2022, registered Nov 2022).
  • Started Aug 2022; still recruiting 4 years 3 months later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
48
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
21 Years to 70 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The investigators have developed a self-administered rehabilitation tool that incrementally guides the user to increase head motion to mitigate motion sickness and enhance postural recovery following centrifugation or unilateral vestibular nerve deafferentation surgery.

Read the detailed description

The rehabilitation device guides users to perform sinusoidal head rotations, matched to a metronome, about the yaw, pitch, and roll axes (60 sec epochs, 5 minutes per axis, 15 min total). The assessment for each axis consists of the number of completed epochs with each epoch requiring head rotations of a different amplitude. Subjects are instructed to begin with an 'easy' amplitude (i.e. small) and increase or decrease amplitude depending on the subject's perception of motion sickness - which is input from 0 (absent motion sick) to 11 (vomit) using a handheld controller. Video-oculography captures eye and head velocity as well as tracks the number of blinks and saccades, metrics that can indicate worsening nausea.

02

Conditions studied

  • Vestibular Disorder
  • Vestibular Schwannoma
  • Space Motion Sickness
  • Motion Sickness
03

In context

Vestibular Diseases

170 studies on the registry are indexed under Vestibular Diseases; 41 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 48 is close to the median of 46 across 127 interventional studies indexed under Vestibular Diseases.

Browse Vestibular Diseases studies →

Lead sponsor

Johns Hopkins University is the lead sponsor of 1,815 studies on the registry; 315 are open to participants now.

Of its 208 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 144 (69%) have results posted.

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

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
21 Years to 70 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

  1. Provision of signed and dated form
  2. Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and availability for the duration of the study
  3. In good general health as evidenced by medical history or diagnosed with unilateral vestibular schwannoma
  4. Willing to adhere to the SWAN and/or vestibular rehabilitation regimen

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Current use of anti-nausea medication
  2. Presence of cervical spine pathology that limits head motion to \< 30 degrees in the horizontal or vertical plane (i.e. degenerative disc disease, rheumatoid arthritis)
  3. Any orthopedic pathology that prevents walking or standing independently (i.e. recent surgery)
  4. Legal blindness (20/200 or worse visual acuity)
  5. Treatment using a motion sickness drug or other motion sickness behavioral intervention within 30 days
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(2)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Investigational drug or device

A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.

It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
48 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Traditional Vestibular Physical Therapy (VPT) JHU

    Subjects that have had their eighth cranial nerve resected will receive traditional vestibular rehabilitation exercises at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) site.

    Behavioral: Traditional Therapy

  • Experimental
    SWAN VPT JHU

    Subjects that have had their eighth cranial nerve resected will receive the automated vestibular rehabilitation method

    Device: SWAN

  • Experimental
    SWAN Motion Sick Dayton

    Healthy control subjects that meet similar similar physical characteristics of astronauts will receive the automated vestibular rehabilitation method post motion sickness.

    Device: SWAN

  • No intervention
    Traditional Motion Sick Dayton

    Typically, the suggestion for treating motion sickness once it has started is to avoid motion. Therefore, healthy control subjects that meet similar similar physical characteristics of astronauts will not receive any post motion sickness treatment.

Interventions

  • BehavioralTraditional Therapy

    Exercises that teaches subjects to move their heads while viewing still or moving targets.

    Also known as: Gaze stability exercises

  • DeviceSWAN

    The SWAN device uses video-oculography to monitor head motion while guiding participants to move their head in yaw, pitch, roll planes for 15 minutes. Feedback is provided regarding frequency and plane of head rotation

    Also known as: StableEyes Training Device with video-oculography

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in Motion sickness intensity as assessed by subjective rating

    Subjective rating of motion sickness intensity from 0 to 10. Zero denotes absent motion sickness while 10 denote vomiting.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change in Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex (VOR) gain as measured by video-oculography

    Ratio of eye velocity to head velocity that varies from 0 to 1.2. Normal scores are greater than 0.8.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  2. Change in Number of blinks as measured by video-oculography

    Increase blinking is correlated with worse motion sickness.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  3. Change in Heart rate as measured by a monitor worn over the forearm

    Heart rate in beats per minute will be measured using a monitor worn over the forearm.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  4. Change in Timed Up and Go Plus

    Time measured in seconds for a subject to stand up, step over an obstacle then walk 3M before turning around and sitting down.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  5. Change in Foam Stance - Eyes Open

    Time in seconds to stand on foam with eyes open. Inability to stand for less than 20 seconds is associated with 3x greater risk for falling.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  6. Change in Foam Stance - Eyes Closed

    Time in seconds to stand on foam with eyes closed. Inability to stand for less than 20 seconds is associated with 3x greater risk for falling.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  7. Change in Foam Stance - Eyes Open with head motion

    Time to seconds to stand on foam with eyes open while moving head up and down. Inability to stand for less than 20 seconds is associated with 3x greater risk for falling.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  8. Change in Foam Stance - Eyes Closed with head motion

    Time in seconds to stand on foam with eyes closed while moving head up and down. Inability to stand for less than 20 seconds is associated with 3x greater risk for falling.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  9. Change in Gait speed

    Velocity to walk 6m within a 10m marked distance, measured in meters/second. Normative data exists based on decade of age.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  10. Change in Gait endurance

    Distance walked in 2 minutes, measure in meters.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  11. Change in Vertical and torsional alignment nulling test (VAN and TAN)

    Vertical alignment nulling and torsional alignment nulling ask subjects to adjust lines to there perceived horizontal. Measured in degrees.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  12. Change in Rod and Frame Test

    Subjects adjust a virtual line to their perceived vertical, measured in degrees.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  13. Change in Rod and Disk Test

    Subjects adjust a virtual line to their perceived vertical, measured in degrees.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  14. Change in Subjective Visual Vertical

    Subjects adjust a virtual line to their perceived vertical, measured in degrees.

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

  15. Change in Daily Activity as assessed by an activity monitor

    Subjects wear an activity monitor on their wrist Data includes daily distance walked .

    Time frame: Daily for up to 4 weeks

07

Study locations

2 of 2 sites recruiting
  • Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, Maryland 21287, United States
    Recruiting
    • Michael C Schubert, PhD · Contactmschube1@jhmi.edu · 410-955-3403
    • Colin R Grove, PhD · Sub investigator
  • Naval Medical Research Unit
    Dayton, Ohio 45433, United States
    Enrolling by invitation
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Todd CJ, Schubert MC, Rinaudo CN, Migliaccio AA. Unidirectional Vertical Vestibuloocular Reflex Adaptation in Humans Using 1D and 2D Scenes. Otol Neurotol. 2022 Oct 1;43(9):e1039-e1044. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000003684. Epub 2022 Sep 9. PubMed 36075099 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No — Currently, we have no plan to share data with other researchers

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Aug 2022 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Mar 2027, 55 months after the start.

Of 79 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Vestibular Diseases, half reached primary completion within 16 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 8 and three quarters within 37. This study's planned 55 months is above that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 84 studies reached it within 15 months; a quarter within 8 and three quarters within 34.

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

Registered
Nov 11, 2022
First posted
Nov 18, 2022
StartActual
Aug 8, 2022
Primary completionEst.
Mar 30, 2027
CompletionEst.
Mar 30, 2027
Last update
Sep 8, 2026
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 8, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05622344
Collaborators
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 18, 2022
Start date
Aug 8, 2022
Primary completion
Mar 30, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 30, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 8, 2026

Study contacts

Michael Schubert, PhD
Contact
mschube1@jhmi.edu
4108427403
Matthew Stewart, MD PhD
Contact
cstewa16@jhmi.edu
4109553492
Matthew Stewart, MD PhD
principal investigator · Johns Hopkins University

Oversight

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

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