Active clinical trials for "Apraxia, Ideomotor"

Limbs apraxia is a motor disorder whose characteristic is the inability or difficulty to perform intentional movements of the limbs (gestures), most frequently involving the upper limbs. Recent literature indicated promising effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the recovery of limbs apraxia, showing that, in stroke patients, excitatory anodal tDCS over left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) may improve limb apraxia. Despite this encouraging evidence, the need for larger well powered and sham-controlled clinical trials has also been identified. For these reasons, the objective of this study is to investigate the effects of tDCS application on the left posterior parietal cortex, associated with the treatment for apraxia made by Smania et al. in 2000, on the recovery of the upper limbs ideomotor apraxia in patients with left brain lesion of vascular origin.

Ideomotor apraxia, a disorder that affects patients with stroke and a variety of other brain lesions, features disturbed timing, sequence, and spatial organization of skilled movements. This study will look at how different areas of the human brain control fine hand movements. Thirty-five participants 21 years and older will be enrolled in this study-25 healthy, right-handed people, and 10 stroke patients. They will undergo two outpatient sessions, each lasting up to 3 hours. The first visit for the stroke patients will occur between 2 weeks and 3 months after the stroke; the second visit will be at least 6 months after the stroke. Participants will have a physical exam, give a medical history, and complete a questionnaire. Then they will undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. They will lie in the MRI scanner and will be asked to do a number of skilled hand movements using the right hand (such as pretending to use a hammer or waving goodbye) in response to directions that will appear on a screen mounted over their head. Their movements will be recorded on videotape during the procedures.

This study will examine how the brain operates during execution and control of voluntary movement and what goes wrong with these processes in disease. It will use electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) to compare brain function in normal subjects and in patients with-a disorder affecting patients with stroke and other brain lesions. These patients have problems with timing, sequence and spatial organization of certain types of movements. EEG measures the electrical activity of the brain. The activity is recorded using wire electrodes attached to the scalp or mounted on a Lycra cap placed on the head. EMG measures electrical activity from muscles. It uses wire electrodes placed on the skin over the muscles. Adult healthy normal volunteers and patients with ideomotor apraxia with a single left brain lesion may be eligible for this study. Study participants will be asked to make certain movements with their arms or hands, such as waving and using scissors. Brain and muscle activity will be measured during these tasks with EEG and EMG recordings. Patients may be asked to repeat these tests over time as their condition changes (such as during recovery from a stroke) to gain information about the recovery process.

This study attempts to identify two types of AD by using clinical and cognitive tasks and brain imaging. The subtypes of AD are separated into a "typical" group (memory loss) and a "variant" group (language, visuospatial, and other cognitive difficulties). Performance on the clinical tasks and brain imaging will be compared among the young-onset Alzheimer's disease group, a late-onset Alzheimer's disease group, and a control group.