Active clinical trials for "Movement Disorders"

This study will look for abnormalities in a brain of persons affected with spasmodic dysphonia, a form of movement disorder that involves involuntary "spasms" of the muscles in the vocal folds causing breaks of speech and affecting voice quality. The causes of this disorder are not known. The study will compare results of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in people with spasmodic dysphonia and in healthy volunteers. People with adductor or abductor spasmodic dysphonia and healthy volunteers may be eligible for this study. Candidates are screened with a medical history, physical examination, and a test called nasolaryngoscopy. For this test, the inside of the subject's nose is sprayed with a decongestant, and a small, flexible tube called a nasolaryngoscope is passed through the nose to the back of the throat to allow examination of the larynx (voice box). During this procedure, the subject is asked to perform tasks such as talking, singing, whistling, and saying prolonged vowels. The nasolaryngoscope is connected to a camera to record the movements of the vocal folds during these tasks. Eligible participants then undergo MRI of the brain. MRI uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves instead of x-rays to obtain images of body organs and tissues. For this test, the subject lies on a table that slides into the MRI scanner, a narrow metal cylinder, wearing ear plugs to muffle loud knocking sound that occurs during the scan. During MRI anatomical images of the brain are obtained. Subject may be asked to participate in up to two scanning sessions. Each session takes about 1-1/2 hours. Participants may also be asked to volunteer for a brain donation program which is optional. Information gained from donated tissue may lead to better treatments and potential cures for spasmodic dysphonia.

Background: Motor stereotypies are a movement disorder characterized by involuntary, repetitive, and rhythmic movements. These movements have a predictable pattern and seem purposeful, but they serve no obvious function, tend to be prolonged, and can be suppressed. Common examples of motor stereotypies include hand waving, head nodding, and body rocking. Researchers are interested in learning more about motor stereotypies. Many children with autism and other developmental disorders tend to exhibit these behaviors, but normal healthy children and even some adults have demonstrated motor stereotypies under certain conditions (including boredom and stress). More research is needed to determine the internal causes of and potential successful treatments for these behaviors. Objectives: - To use electroencephalography (EEG) to study cerebral activity related to stereotypies in children. Eligibility: - Children between 7 and 18 years of age who demonstrate stereotypy movements on a consistent basis (at least 10 times a day for at least 4 months). Design: The study will require two visits to the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. First visit: Outpatient screening visit to determine the child s eligibility for the study, including questionnaires for parents/guardians and a medical assessment of the stereotypies. Second visit: Participating children will spend 1 day in a room at the NIH Clinical Center Pediatric Day Hospital. During the visit, participants will wear a portable EEG unit to measure brain activity. For the first hour of the visit, researchers will perform movement tests to study the brain activity related to normal movements. For the rest of the day, participants may play games, watch television or movies, read, or nap, while continuing to wear the EEG to monitor brain activity related to the stereotypic movements. Participants will receive a small amount of compensation for their time and participation.

This study will explore how the mind and the brain work to cause movement symptoms or seizures in people who do not have a recognized neurological or medical disorder. The study includes a check for psychiatric disorders, symptoms and their severity; psychiatric and personality questionnaires; and neuropsychological testing. Normal, healthy volunteers, people who have movement symptoms not due to a brain or medical disorder and people who have seizures not due to epilepsy may be eligible for this study. All candidates must be 18 years of age or older. All participants have a medical history, physical examination and psychological evaluation, including completion of questionnaires. People with movement symptoms or seizures have a symptoms evaluation. Some participants also undergo neuropsychological testing, including questionnaires, pen-and-paper or computerized tests, and motor tasks.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a technique used to investigate activity in areas of the brain. The PET technique allows researchers to study the normal processes in the brain (central nervous system) of normal individuals and patients with neurologic illnesses without physical / structural damage to the brain. When a region of the brain is active, it uses more fuel in the form of oxygen and sugar (glucose). As the brain uses more fuel it produces more waste products, carbon dioxide and water. Blood carries fuel to the brain and waste products away from the brain. As brain activity increases, blood flow to and from the area of activity also increases. This is known as regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). Knowing these facts, researchers can use radioactive water (H215O) and PET scans to observe what areas of the brain are receiving more blood flow. In this study researchers plan to investigate the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as patients participate in different activities. The activities are designed to stimulate the areas of the brain responsible for voluntary motor activity and sensation. By comparing the results of PET scans performed in different conditions, researchers can locate regions of the brain responsible for specific tasks. This study should provide new information about voluntary movements in humans and the preparation involved in controlling them.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between deep brain stimulation implantation site and DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) derived measures for the region and later compare this to the clinical treatment outcomes.

This study will use transcranial magnetic stimulation to examine how the brain controls movement by sending messages to the spinal cord and muscles and what goes wrong with this process in disease. Normal healthy volunteers 18 years of age and older may be eligible to participate. In transcranial magnetic stimulation, an insulated wire coil is placed on the subject's scalp or skin. Brief electrical currents are passed through the coil, creating magnetic pulses that stimulate the brain. During the stimulation, participants will be asked to tense certain muscles slightly or perform other simple actions. The electrical activity of the muscle will be recorded on a computer through electrodes applied to the skin over the muscle. In most cases, the study will last less than 3 hours.

The purpose of this protocol is to identify families with inherited neurologic conditions, especially movement disorders, to evaluate affected and unaffected individuals clinically, and to obtain blood samples for genetic analysis.

Functional neurological disorders (FND) are neurological symptoms that cannot be explained by a lesion or related to an identified dysfunction of the central nervous system. FND are under-diagnosed, although common and highly disabling. Childhood trauma events are found in 30% to 80% of FND patients, and are more common in people with functional neurological disorder than in healthy controls and patient controls. Overall, risks factors, perpetuating factors and maintaining factors have been described in FND, although none of the studies have analysed the prevalence of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) in these patients. EMS, as measured with the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ), are proposed to underlie a variety of mental health problems, in particular Personality Disorders. We hypothesize that some of these early maladaptive schemas may participate in the psychopathology and severity of FND. The main outcome of this study is to assess the prevalence of early maladaptive schemas in patients presenting with Functional Movement Disorders in comparison to patients presenting with Parkinson's Disease or Organic Dystonia. The secondary outcomes are to further analyse the underlying relation of these early maladaptive schemas and (i) the severity of the motor symptoms, (ii) anxiety and/or depression, (iii) the occurrence of childhood trauma events in our participants.

The purpose of the study is to determine if non-invasive measurements of brain waves from the skin called electroencephalography (EEG) can predict whether the brain stimulator will help your symptoms. Our goal is to obtain these brain wave measurements with patients both awake and under general anesthesia, and then to evaluate which brain wave patterns are associated with clinical improvement to determine if they could be useful for predicting whether the surgery will work. If such predictive measures were established based upon the findings of this study, they could be used in the future to improve surgical outcomes in the following ways: (1) to help guide surgical targeting in the operating room awake or under anesthesia, (2) to guide post-operative programming in clinic, and (3) and to develop potential feedback systems for "automatic" programming of the brain stimulator system at home.

The main objective of the study is to determine whether depth of anesthesia (DOA) monitoring such as Bispectral Index (BIS) and entropy are accurate in patients with neuro-psychological conditions such as Parkinson's disease by comparing these monitoring with standard clinical monitoring like heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate.