Trigeminal Brainstem Mapping 2: Higher Cortical Strucureas as Well as Subnuclei of the Spinal Trigeminal Nucleus

May 14, 2026 updated by: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Brainstem Mapping of Nociceptive and Non-nociceptive Trigeminal Input and Its Functional Connectivty

In previous studies clustering of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve in brainstem were shown, cerebellum and periaqueductal gray. To further evaluate higher cortical structures, which were not covered by our previous field of view (FOV) and to further investigate the identified 'subnuclei' of the spinal trigeminal nucleus, here the aim is to scan the whole brain as well as the brainstem and the upper spinal cord during trigeminal nociceptive as well as non-nociceptive electrical stimulation of all three branches of the trigeminal nerve (and the arm as a somatic control site) during acquisition of BOLD-fMRI in humans.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Preprocessing and processing of the MR data will follow our previous publications (Mehnert et al 2023, Mehnert et al 2024)

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

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 Locations

  • Germany
      • Hamburg, Germany, 20246
        • University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • healthy
  • suitable fo MRI

Exclusion Criteria:

  • headache disease
  • psychological disorder
  • pregnancy
  • all exclusion criteria necessary for imaging in a 3 T MRI scanner

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: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Electric Stimulation
Electric stimulation with a Digitimer DS7AH HV Current Stimulator delivered with 4 shielded electrodes mounted on the participants head and arm.
Device: Electric Current Stimulation
Electric stimulation with a Digitimer DS7AH HV Current Stimulator delivered with 4 shielded electrodes mounted on the participants head and arm

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Statistical Parametric Maps calculated from the fMRI data of higher cortical brain structures
Time Frame: only 1 visit
Anterior and posterior insula, the cingulate cortex and S1/S2 will show significant activation at an small-volume corrected threshold of p<0.05
only 1 visit
Statistical Parametric Maps calculated from the fMRI data on brainstem level
Time Frame: only 1 visit
At an small volume corrected threshold of p<0.05 will be reproduce activation of all previously shown subnuclei of the spinal trigeminal nucleus for all three trigeminal branches using a sphere of 10 mm around previously published (Mehnert et al, 2023) MNI coordinates.
only 1 visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Functional connectivty between insula and spinal trigeminal cortex
Time Frame: only 1 visit
For each of the trigeminal subnuclei we will calculate the functional connectivity to higher cortical areas, such as the anterior and posterior insula, the cingulate cortex and S1/S2 with a psycho-physiological interaction analysis (PPI) for painful as well as non-painful stimulation to characterize the function of each subnucleus.
only 1 visit

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

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)

August 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 30, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 30, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

August 2, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 14, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TrigeminalBrainstemMapping2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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