Brain Computer Interface Complete locked-in State Communication

April 17, 2019 updated by: Dr. Ujwal Chaudhary, University Hospital Tuebingen

Brain Computer Interface Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State

Electroencephalography (EEG) and/or near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) based Brain computer interface for communication in patients without any means of communication.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive motor disease of unknown etiology resulting eventually in a complete paralysis of the motor system but affecting sensory or cognitive functions to a minor degree. There is no treatment available; patients have to decide to accept artificial respiration and feeding after the disease destroys respiratory and bulbar functions or to die of respiratory or related problems. If they opt for life and accept artificial respiration, the disease progresses until the patient loses control of the last muscular response, usually the eye muscles. If rudimentary voluntary control of at least one muscle is present the syndrome is called locked-in state (LIS); ultimately as the disease progresses most ALS patients lose the control of all muscles, the resulting condition is called completely locked-in state (CLIS). Patients in CLIS are unable to communicate with the external world because all assistive communication aids are based on some remaining motor control; hence there is a vital need for an assistive technology to help patients in CLIS to communicate needs and feelings to their family members/caregivers. Brain computer interface (BCI) represents a promising strategy to establish communication with paralyzed ALS patients, as it does not need muscle control. BCI research includes invasive (implantable electrodes on or in the neocortex) and noninvasive means (including electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)) to record brain activity for conveying the user's intent to devices such as simple word-processing programs. Non-invasive methods have been utilized more frequently than invasive methods for people with disabilities (such as those with ALS).

For these conditions (LIS and CLIS) Brain-Computer-Interface were developed and tested extensively since the first publication of Birbaumer, 1999 of two LIS patients suffering from ALS. Patients select letters or words after learning self-regulation of the particular brain signal or by focusing their attention to the desired letter or a letter-matrix and the attention related brain potential selects the desired letter.

Different types of BCI based on EEG and/NIRS is under development to provide a means of communication to patients who have none.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Anticipated)

15

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

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

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients in complete locked-in state without any eye movement

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients without any eye movement

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients with intact eye movement

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

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Locked-in and complete locked-in state patients
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients in complete locked-in state as well as in transition from locked-in to complete locked-in state who have no means of communication.
Other: Non-invasive brain computer interface
The hemodynamic change in the motor cortex of the CLIS patient will be recorded across many sessions spread over more than a year and will be used to train a classifier to predict the "yes" and "no" answering pattern of the CLIS patient. For patient who can still open their eyes but cannot use any other means of communication will control an EEG based BCI for communication.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Brain Computer Interface Based Communication in the Completely Locked-In State patients
Time Frame: 2 years
fNIRS based BCI will be employed for communication in ALS patients in CLIS. The hemodynamic change in the motor cortex of the CLIS patient will be recorded and will be used for communication.
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University Hospital Tuebingen

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Niels Birbaumer, PhD, University Hospital Tuebingen

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)

June 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2021

Study Completion (Anticipated)

April 1, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 22, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 29, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

December 2, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 19, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 17, 2019

Last Verified

April 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ALS BCI study

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

Data will be made available to other researcher after publication of the study

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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