RECRUITING Not applicable ClinicalTrials.gov

Motor Network Physiology

Sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center • ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04957095

Registry updated: 2026-10-01

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Description

The brain networks controlling movement are complex, involving multiple areas of the brain. Some neurological disorders, like Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor (ET), cause abnormalities in these brain networks. Deep brain stimulation is a treatment that is used to treat these types of neurological diseases and is thought to help patients by modulating brain networks responsible for movement. Levodopa medication is also used to modulate this brain networks in patients with PD. The overall objective is to develop a unified theory of basal ganglia thalamocortical (BGTC) circuit dynamics that accounts for disease symptomatology, movement, and their inter-relationship. The underlying hypothesis, is that the rigidity and bradykinesia of PD are fundamentally related to excessive functional coupling across nodes in the BGTC motor circuit impeding effective information flow. In this research, the investigator will take advantage of the unique opportunity provided by awake deep brain stimulation surgery to learn more about how the brain functions in a diseased state and how deep brain stimulation changes these networks to make movement more normal. The investigator will simultaneously assess cortical and subcortical electrophysiology in relation to clinical symptoms and behavioral measures and in response to deep brain stimulation, cortical stimulation, and pharmacologic therapy in patients undergoing Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) implantation surgery.

Interventions

Apomorphine Injectable Solution (Drug)
Apomorphine injected for therapeutic relief
Subcortical Stimulation (Other)
Subcortical simulation of the deep brain stimulation surgery target site will be applied by clinically placed deep brain stimulation electrodes at the previously determined therapeutic setting

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria: * Diagnosis of Parkinson's disease who have been recommended to undergo deep brain stimulation for management of their movement disorder * Preoperative MRI without evidence of cortical or subdural adhesions or vascular abnormalities * Willingness and ability to cooperate during conscious operative procedure for up to 40 minutes Exclusion Criteria: * Patients with recent use (within one week) of anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents * Neurocognitive testing indicating amnestic cognitive deficits

Conditions

Parkinson Disease Essential Tremor

Locations

UT Southwestern Medical Center — Dallas, Texas, United States

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Official Source

Data sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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