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Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation as a Potential Intervention for Cognitive Decline

University of Texas at Austin · with Texas Alzheimer's Research and Care Consortium · NCT05907343

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Opens the official ClinicalTrials.gov record, with the study team’s contacts. Bored Studies doesn’t enroll anyone.

Key facts

Compensation
Not posted. Ask the study team before screening.
Who can join
Ages 18–90 · All sexes
Healthy volunteers
Accepted
Study type
Interventional · Not applicable
Target enrollment
180
US sites recruiting
1
Study start
May 31, 2023
Record last updated
September 2, 2026

Status re-checked against ClinicalTrials.gov within the last 12 hours.

What the study is about

The goal of this clinical study is to investigate the effectiveness of non-invasive stimulation to enhance cognitive control abilities in older adults with and without cognitive impairment. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • whether it is possible to restore various cognitive functions in older adults by delivering theta burst stimulation (TBS), a form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, and
  • whether closed-loop TBS is able to induce therapeutic benefits that outperform open-loop TBS.

Participants play a cognitive video game while a brain-computer interface (BCI) analyzes their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and decodes the presence or absence of the contingent negative variation (CNV) potential, a marker of cognitive control. The BCI triggers TBS when its outputs indicate that the participant is not engaged properly in the video game.

Researchers will compare the effects of closed-loop and open-loop TBS using the outcome metrics described below to see how much cognitive restorations is achievable with each stimulation modality.

Being studied: Closed-loop TBS; Open-loop TBS

Conditions: Mild Cognitive Impairment; Alzheimer Dementia (AD)

Eligibility criteria

Copied from the official record. The study team makes the final decision at screening.

Show full criteria

Inclusion Criteria

  • Older adults
  • Ages between 60 to 90 years
  • Good general health
  • Normal or corrected vision
  • Completed elementary school education or able to understand middle school level experiment instructions
  • Self reports cognitive complaints
  • Cognitively normal young adults
  • Ages between 18 to 35 years
  • Good general health
  • Normal or corrected vision
  • Completed elementary school education or able to understand middle school level experiment instructions

Exclusion Criteria

  • Self-report of neurological or psychiatric diseases that could be contraindicated for TMS (e.g., personal history of epilepsy/seizure brain damage, history of fainting, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, current substance use disorder, etc.).
  • Medications that elevate seizure threshold (e.g., stimulant medication, high dose bupropion).
  • Factors hindering EEG acquisition and rTMS delivery (e.g., skin infection, wounds, dermatitis, unable to access the scalp of the participant (e.g., unremovable wig).
  • Current participation in amyloid infusion treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
  • Do not have the capacity to provide informed consent and does not have a Legally Authorized Representative.
  • Resting motor threshold below the power limit in the laboratory. (Will be check on the first visit)

Recruiting US locations

  • Health Discovery Building

    Austin, TX 78712

    Site contact: Patrick Escamilla · 512-495-5246 · pescamilla@austin.utexas.edu

Study contacts (from the official record)

  • José del R. Millán, PhD · 512-232-8111 · jose.millan@austin.utexas.edu
  • Minsu Zhang · 512-840-9310 · minsuzhang@austin.utexas.edu
All neurology studies in Texas →
Closed-Loop Brain Stimulation as a Potential Intervention for… (NCT05907343) | Bored Studies