Improving Mobility and Cognition in Older Adults Using Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NIBS)

March 6, 2024 updated by: Manuel Montero Odasso, Lawson Health Research Institute

Improving Mobility and Cognition in Older Adults: Establishment of an Interdisciplinary Clinical Research Program Using Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation

This study aims to test the efficacy of a type of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), known as repetitive transcranial magnetic (rTMS) stimulation, in improving mobility, particularly gait stability and variability, and executive dysfunction in older adults. The study will be conducted in forty older adults (≥60 years) with a diagnosis of executive dysfunction.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The proposed study using rTMS will build upon the investigators previous work demonstrating the link between cognitive impairment, particularly executive dysfunction, and mobility/gait abnormalities in older adults, even in those labeled as "cognitively normal". Emerging evidence demonstrates that executive dysfunction is an early phenomenon in the pathway to mobility disability and subtle changes in executive function are independently associated with future falls. The investigators have piloted studies showing that pharmacological enhancement of executive function, can improve gait-motor performance and, potentially, reduce mobility decline and risk of falls. This supports the rationale for a promising intervention: enhancing cognition to prevent mobility decline and reduce risk of falls. The long-term goal is to create a clinical research program to apply rTMS as an early novel intervention for cognitive/motor interaction to ultimately delay the onset of cognitive and mobility disabilities and their devastating consequences, dementia and falls, in older adults. However, it is first necessary to study a smaller group of seniors to plan for recruitment, study retention and compliance, and to gather preliminary data as proof of principle before proceeding to a larger clinical trial.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

25

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • London, Ontario, Canada
        • Parkwood Institute

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

60 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Having executive dysfunction (defined as score below 11 out of a possible 13 in the "Montreal Cognitive Assessment -MoCA- executive score index")
  • Age 60 years and older
  • English speaking
  • Able to ambulate 10m independently without any gait aid (eg. walker, cane)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unable to understand or communicate in English
  • Parkinsonism or any neurological disorder with residual motor deficit (eg. Major stroke, epilepsy)
  • Musculoskeletal disorder detected by clinical examination which affects gait performance -Active osteoarthritis affecting lower limbs (American College of Rheumatology criteria)
  • Severe depression operationalized as Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score>10

TMS specific exclusion criteria:

  • Persons with metal anywhere in the head, excluding the mouth, including shrapnel, and screws and clips from surgical procedures
  • Persons with cardiac pacemakers, implanted medication pumps, electrodes inside the heart
  • Unstable heart disease
  • Persons with increased intracranial pressure, as in acute large infarctions or trauma
  • Previous major stroke, history seizure, Parkinson D, Huntington D.
  • History of schizophrenia/schizo-affective disorder, substance use disorder within 1 year of study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: rTMS Active
High frequency pulsed repetitive magnetic stimulation at 100 % resting motor threshold will be delivered using a figure of 8 air film cooled coil attached to the Magstim® Rapid 2 machine. Resting motor threshold will be determined minimum energy needed to elicit the a reliable visible contraction in the contra-lateral first interosseous muscle using single pulse rTMS applied to the area between C1-C3 using the 10-20 international EEG electrode system. For stimulation, the coil will be positioned on the scalp corresponding to F4 then F3 electrode position using the 10-20 international EEG system. Real stimulation will consist of delivering 1200 pulses at 20 hz frequency to F4 location followed by the same stimulation to F3. The total time needed to deliver pulses is 20 minutes.
Device: Magstim® Rapid 2 machine
See Arms description
Other Names:
  • MAGSTIM® RAPID II SYSTEM License number 69773
Placebo Comparator: rTMS Sham
Sham stimulation will also involve delivering the same stimulus but with angulation of the coil at 45 degrees, which will give similar scalp sensation but unlikely to deliver magnetic stimulation to the cortex
Device: Magstim® Rapid 2 machine
See Arms description
Other Names:
  • MAGSTIM® RAPID II SYSTEM License number 69773

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Gait velocity - cm/s
Time Frame: Seven days
Seven days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Executive function, assessed as time to take to complete Trail Making A and B (TMT A and B) in seconds.
Time Frame: seven days
seven days

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Gait variability which is calculated as coefficient of variation (CoV)
Time Frame: Seven days
Seven days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Lawson Health Research Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Manuel Montero Odasso, MD,PhD, Lawson Health Research Institute, Western University, St. Joseph's Healthcare

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

April 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

May 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 29, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 14, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

April 15, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 8, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 6, 2024

Last Verified

March 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 107526

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Due to the proof of principle nature of this study, our data will be crucial to establish efficacy of the intervention and furhet apply for funding for larger, clinical trial to test efectiveness

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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