An interventional study of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Cerebellar Stroke and Autoimmune Cerebellar Disorders, sponsored by George Wittenberg. Not yet recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 100 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-24.
Sponsored by George Wittenberg · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
The work will examine the mechanisms and potential therapeutic effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation on upper-limb sensorimotor function in individuals with cerebellar dysfunction, including those with damage due to stroke or autoimmune disease.
The study team will work toward a goal of non-invasive stimulation-based neuromodulatory interventions for cerebellar disorders using a closely integrated, clinically oriented cross-species approach. There will be a related study in nonhuman primates.
Although diseases of the cerebellum can compromise quality of life, their treatment has received less research and clinical attention than diseases of other parts of the nervous system, such as the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord. The vision is a cerebellar prosthesis: a surgically implanted closed-loop neuromodulation system that can alleviate the symptoms of cerebellar dysfunction. Cerebellar disorders are varied, as are the opportunities for treatment. This study focuses on cerebellar disorders that impair arm and hand function as an entry point to study mechanisms of disability and treatment modalities. This first begins with exploring neuromodulation in the form of noninvasive transcranial stimulation.
Aim 1: Use noninvasive neuromodulation to improve upper-limb dysfunction associated with cerebellar disorders.
Deficits associated with cerebellar disorders can be subtle, yet persistent and frustrating for those who experience them. Motor adaptation is a well-established cerebellum-dependent process and remains an important entry point for broader effort to understand cerebellar dysfunction and develop treatment strategies. Upper-limb dysfunction in cerebellar disorders may also reflect impairments in sensory processing, motor control, and motor learning, as well as disruption of broader cerebello-cerebral networks, including posterior parietal cortical (PPC) regions involved in sensorimotor integration and movement updating. Working hypotheses: 1. Impaired sensorimotor performance, including deficits in motor learning during a fine-grained reaching task, will be observed in individuals with cerebellar disorders, 2. These impairments will be associated with damage to sensorimotor regions of the cerebellum that will serve as future targets for an NHP stroke model, and with disruption to a functionally connected network of cerebral sensorimotor regions including PPC, 3. Intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) can modulate cerebro-cerebellar circuit-level function to healthier states, improving motor control and implicit adaptation during reaching tasks.
Aim 1 will (i) characterize impaired reaching in individuals with cerebellar disorders, (ii) identify neuroanatomical correlates of impaired reaching, and (iii) test whether iTBS can improve reaching abilities after cerebellar dysfunction. A rigorous behavioral battery of assessments are designed to assess sensory function, motor control, and motor learning during reaching-related tasks.
8,255 studies on the registry are indexed under Stroke; 2,056 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 60 is above the median of 49 across 6,024 interventional studies indexed under Stroke.
Browse Stroke studies →This is the only study on the registry with George Wittenberg as lead sponsor.
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For those with cerebellar disorders:
Exclusion Criteria:
Control participants will be excluded for the following condition:
- have self-reported history of neurological injury or a developmental disorder
Brain stimulation will be applied to the parietal reach region.
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Theta burst TMS stimulation will be applied over the cerebellum
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Theta burst stimulation will be applied over the parietal midline
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Stimulation of continuous theta burst stimulation at 80% of resting motor threshold over the region targeted for modulation after behavioral testing, with resting of behavior afterwards.
Motor Assessments with KINARM Robot
In the arm position matching task, the robot will move one arm to a target location, and participants will match the perceived position with the opposite arm (\~50 trials per assessment, \~10 minutes). In the alternating reaching task, participants will make rapid alternating reaches between targets while keeping the movement within a visually defined channel or bounded path (\~80 reaches per assessment, \~10 minutes). In the clamped feedback reaching task, participants will complete brief sequences of center-out reaches designed to measure single-trial adaptation. Each sequence will include no-feedback reaches surrounding a trial with experimentally manipulated cursor feedback. During clamped-feedback trials, the cursor will move along a fixed path relative to the target, independent of the participant's actual hand direction. Adaptation will be estimated from changes in reach direction on subsequent no-feedback reaches (\~120 total trials per assessment, \~15 minutes).
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 8 weeks
Plan to share: Yes — Anonymized imaging, clinical and behavioral measurements
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Start is estimated for Dec 2026; primary completion for Dec 2027, 12 months later.
Of 3,108 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Stroke, half reached primary completion within 23 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 46. This study's planned 12 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 3,252 studies reached it within 23 months; a quarter within 10 and three quarters within 46.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Sep 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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