Active clinical trials for "Perceptual Disorders"

This multi-center project aims to quantify the socio-medical costs associated with Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) resulting from acquired brain injury (stroke) and to measure the effects of USN rehabilitation on functional autonomy, quality of life and psychological well-being of patients affected by this syndrome, considering the repercussions on a psychological level and on the quality of life of caregivers. To this end, the experimenters will administer to right brain-injured patients - with (Experimental Group) or without (Control Group) USN - who undertook a rehabilitation process, a series of questionnaires: Activities of daily living (ADL), Barthel Index; Instrumental activities of daily living scale (I-ADL:), the Health Related Quality of Life questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y). The aforementioned tests will be administered before the start of the rehabilitation (baseline) and after one month, 3, 6 and 12 months after the end of the rehabilitation. The impact of USN and its treatment on the psycho-physical well-being of the caregiver will be measured through the Caregiver Burden Inventory questionnaire, which will be administered with the same timing (baseline, 1-3-6-12 months after rehabilitation). The costs of USN will be surveyed through an ad-hoc questionnaire, which includes a version intended for patients and one for caregivers, in order to identify the resources consumed due to the disease and the expenses taken during the observation period, to be estimated subsequently in monetary terms (€).

Brain-damaged patients can show severe neurological and cognitive deficits, and yet often remain strikingly unaware of these symptoms: this condition is called anosognosia. The aim of this study is to improve awareness in right-brain-damaged patients with Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) following stroke using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). tDCS is a neuromodulatory technique that delivers low-intensity current to the brain facilitating (anodal tDCS) or inhibiting (cathodal tDCS) spontaneous neuronal activity. tDCS does not induce activity in resting neuronal networks, but modulates spontaneous neuronal activity: consequently, the amount and direction of effects critically depend on the previous state of the neural structures. We will test USN patients showing anosognosia for neglect symptoms. Different brain areas will be stimulated, to target explicit and implicit components of anosognosia, including parietal and frontal brain regions.

Visual neglect is a common disorder following stroke and an indicator of poor recovery compared to stroke survivors without visual neglect. The goal of this intervention study is to assess the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in reducing visual neglect symptoms in patients following a stroke. The aim is to answer these questions: 1. Does rTMS decrease visual neglect symptoms in patients following a stroke? 2. If the treatment works, when in the rehabilitation process is it most effective to provide the treatment (6-12 weeks, 16-42 weeks or 52+ weeks after the stroke).

Spatial neglect is a common disorder after stroke which leads to problems with noticing or responding to information from the left side of the body or space. This condition has been linked to reduced independence in a wide range of daily life activities including eating, dressing, and mobility. Despite its high prevalence in stroke patients, there is currently no standard of care for spatial neglect. Prism adaptation (PA) is a promising treatment, however, there are limitations to using PA in standard clinical care as it requires daily exposure for at least two weeks, yet access to equipment and supervision is limited. To solve this problem, the investigators have developed a new game-like PA treatment (Peg-the-Mole, PTM) that can be used at home without the need for daily in person therapist set-up and supervision. In this study the investigators aim to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of the gamified and portable PA procedure in an inpatient and home setting, with the hypothesis that the PA procedure will improve patient's neglect symptoms.

Preliminary data will be collected about which individuals with spatial neglect from right hemisphere stroke (aiming vs perceptual neglect) improve with Prism Adaptation Training and if there is a particular pattern of damage in the brain that predicts both the type of neglect experienced and whether neglect is improved following Prism Adaptation Training

The long-term objective of this project is to characterize how psilocybin affects visual perception and the brain's representation of the visual environment. We know that psilocybin alters aspects of visual perception, but the underlying brain mechanisms contributing to these effects are poorly understood. The proposed work will address these questions in a large, diverse sample of healthy human subjects by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the brain's responses to visual stimuli. The proposed research will document which brain areas mediate the effects of psilocybin. The technique of fMRI will be employed to measure brain activity in different brain areas while subjects are performing a visual perceptual task.

The purpose of this study is to test the effects of three different rehabilitation training sessions that combine non-invasive brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS) with arm rehabilitation training (repetitive task-specific practice, RTP) for individuals with unilateral spatial neglect following stroke. This study is designed to determine the effects of tDCS + RTP on the excitability in the brain, attention to the affected side, and arm movement ability.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of virtual prism adaptation therapy on hemispatial neglect in chronic stroke patients. This study is the randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, cross-over design. Total 10 patients will be allocated randomly to either real virtual prism adaptation therapy or sham therapy with the wash-out period of more than 2 weeks. Two sessions (20min/session) per day, for 5days (total 10 sessions) will be provided. Behavioral outcomes will be measured before and after completing a total of 10 sessions therapy.

More than 30,000 Veterans are hospitalized for stroke each year, and in the critical first months of recovery, at least half are disabled by abnormal 3-D spatial function (spatial neglect). Their self-care, mobility, and ability to return home are severely limited.

The researchers designed a software based on a head-mounted displays for virtual reality (HMD-VR) to evaluate the reaction time to stimuli presented at right or left visual field. The study will recruit 100 stroke patients with hemisphere lesions (50 patients for right and left each) and 100 age-matched healthy controls. The participants will conduct a simple reaction time task in VR, with stimuli designated in the left or right hemi-field. The stroke patients will also received traditional tests for hemi-neglect. Test-retest reliability of the assessment will be conducted in a subset of the control group. The stroke patients will be followed in 3-4 weeks.