tDCS as Treatment for Motor Function (PSP)

December 5, 2025 updated by: Tyler Roncero, Baycrest

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation as a Treatment for Motor Function in Participants Living With Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Corticalbasal Syndrome Degeneration, or Parkinson's Disease

Previous preliminary results are sufficiently impressive to suggest that tDCS stimulation does have the potential to improve motor function when that ability is trained during stimulation. In the proposed study, the investigation will assess whether walking sessions combined with tDCS lead to improvements in motor function: gait, articulation, eye gaze, and motor dexterity. In addition, the investigators wish to examine if such results can be replicated in people with other conditions, such as cortical basal syndrome, and Parkinson's disease.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Previous preliminary results are sufficiently impressive to suggest that tDCS stimulation does have the potential to improve motor function when that ability is trained during stimulation. In the proposed study, the investigators will assess whether walking sessions combined with tDCS lead to improvements in motor function: gait, articulation, eye gaze, and motor dexterity. In addition, the investigators wish to examine if such results can be replicated in people with other conditions, such as cortical basal syndrome, and Parkinson's disease. The rationale for including people living with these conditions is the overlap in motor and cortical network dysfunction observed across these disorders. All three conditions involve impairment of motor initiation, gait, coordination, and executive motor control due to degeneration in frontal-subcortical pathways. This extension will also allow for comparison of stimulation responsiveness across related diagnostic groups and provide insight into disease-specific factors influencing motor recovery potential.

Previous tDCS studies have found significant results with sample sizes between 10-20 participants for a two-round study comparing training sessions with real tDCS versus sessions done without tDCS. However, the investigators plan to recruit 30 participants living with each condition as this will allow us to examine results per group, but also how the individual groups compare.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

20

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
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6A 2E1
        • Recruiting
        • Baycrest Academy of Health Sciences and Geriatric Research

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- 1. Participants must be able to walk unassisted, or with the assistance of a walker or cane, and be individuals who walk daily.

2. Participants should have a sufficient level of English to be able to express themselves verbally, be able to read and follow instructions.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • 3. Individuals with metal implants within the brain such as shunts will be excluded.

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: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Real tDCS Stimulation:
Participants will be exposed to 20 min of tDCS brain stimulation while undergoing training on cognitive tasks.
Device: Transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS)
The Crossover design will enable us to use each participant as their own control.
Placebo Comparator: Sham Arm
Participants will be exposed to 20 min of tDCS sham/placebo stimulation while undergoing training on cognitive tasks. Participants will have the exact same apparatus used but with no stimulation.
Device: Stimulation Arm
Participants will be exposed to the brain stimulation protocol while undergoing certain motor task during the training sessions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Gait speed
Time Frame: Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.
Within each round, scores from the final week and final session of real tDCS stimulation will be compared to performance during the first week and final sham tDCS session to check for significant improvement. Our primary outcome measures will be those found for gait; for example, a faster walking time subsequent to tDCS stimulation compared to the placebo baseline. Participants will also return two weeks later for a post-stimulation evaluation to check if improvement was maintained. To check if the arrangement of electrodes impacts the effect, times from the final tDCS session of each round will be compared.
Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Articulation Quality (Clinician-Rated Speech Production on Word and Sentence Repetition)
Time Frame: Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.
Articulation will be assessed using a clinician-administered repetition task involving single words and short sentences. Speech production quality will be rated by the clinician using a standardized 5-point articulation quality scale (1 = severely distorted, 5 = normal/near-normal production). The reported value will be the rating score.
Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.
Eye-Gaze Control (Clinician-Rated Ability to Track a Moving Target)
Time Frame: Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.
Eye-gaze performance will be evaluated using a bedside oculomotor task. Participants are asked to follow a moving pencil with their eyes while keeping their head still. A clinician will rate eye-gaze control on a standardized 3-point scale (0 = unable, 1 = inconsistent, 2 = consistent and accurate). The reported value will be the rating score.
Measures collected at three points each round: baseline in week 1, post-treatment at the final stimulation session, and follow-up two weeks after the final session.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Baycrest

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Tyler Roncero, Ph.D, Baycrest Academy of Health Sciences and Geriatric Research
  • Principal Investigator: Howard Chertkow, MD, Baycrest Academy of Health Sciences and Geriatric Research

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)

October 30, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 17, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 5, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

December 18, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 18, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 5, 2025

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 21-17

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data (IPD) will not be shared. Only aggregated, de-identified summary results will be made available through publications, presentations, or upon request.

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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