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Understanding Brain Activity in Parkinson's Disease During DBS Surgery

This study aims to better understand how brain activity is linked to movement problems in Parkinson's disease. If you are planning to have standard Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery at the University of Minnesota, you might be able to join. During your DBS surgery, a small, thin strip with sensors (an ECoG strip) will be placed through the same opening in your skull as the DBS lead. This strip will record brain activity along with the DBS lead while you do a simple arm movement task. Researchers will then compare two different ways of stimulating your brain through the DBS lead to see which one works best to improve movement. The goal is to find out if certain brain activity patterns can help guide where to place the stimulation for the best results. This study is looking for 25 participants and its current status is unclear.

Study design
This interventional study plans to enroll 25 participants. It involves comparing two different stimulation settings during standard DBS surgery.
What's involved
During your planned DBS lead surgery, an ECoG strip will be placed, and brain activity will be recorded while you perform a motor task. Two sets of stimulation settings will be tested.
Compensation
Not stated in the trial record.
Follow-up
The primary measurements for this study will be taken one day after surgery.

AI-generated from the public study record. Only the study team can confirm whether you're eligible — confirm details with them before making decisions.

NCT06692920

Characterizing the Pathophysiological Role of the Pallido-thalamocortical Motor Pathway in Parkinson's Disease.

Recruiting
NAAges 21–75InterventionalBasic science
University of Minnesota
~25 participants
Updated 2026-03-16 on ClinicalTrials.gov
What's tested:DBS stimulation

At a glance

Recruiting sites
1 of 1 listed site is recruiting right now
RecruitingSuspended, closed, or not yet open
What they're measuring
amount of activity in the pallidothalamic pathway from stimulation, comparing the two sets of stimulation
Measured over post-surgery (1 day)
+1 more outcome measured

Conditions

Parkinson Disease

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NCT06692920

Where you'd take part

This study runs at 1 site. They're the same protocol — you choose where, and that choice sets who your contact draft is addressed to.

  • University of Minnesota

    Minneapolis, Minnesotastudy coordinator listed

    Recruiting

Sites open and close at different times, so the status above is per site — it can differ from the study's overall status.

Study leadership

  • Joshua E Aman · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · University of Minnesota

Who to contact

Kelly Brown, RN
[email protected]
(612) 301-2140
Email the study team

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

Diagnosis of idiopathic PD
DBS surgery at UMN is planned as part of routine clinical care
Aged 21-75

Exclusion

Other significant neurological disorder, which may confound neurophysiological changes associated with Parkinson's disease
History of dementia
Patients with post-operative complications or adverse effects (e.g. ON stimulation dystonias) that affect patient safety or confound the experiment will be excluded from further study
Pregnant women
Known research radiation exposure within the last year that is determined to be unsafe when compounded with the expected radiation dose from intraoperative fluoroscopy

What this trial measures

  • amount of activity in the pallidothalamic pathway from stimulation, comparing the two sets of stimulationpost-surgery (1 day)

    The pallidothalamic pathway is what connects the two locations of the brain from which we are recording (GPi and motor cortex). We will also see how the two sets of stimulation made a difference in measurements of bradykinesia (slowness of movement): how long it took for the participant to get ready to move, how fast they started moving, and how long it took them to touch the startpad.

  • The relationship (slope) between the measures of bradykinesia and total pathway activationpost-surgery (1 day)

    will be estimated via a linear mixed-effects (LME) model that considers multiple subjects and multiple observations within subject