Completed

Intraspinal Plasticity Associated With Locomotor Learning

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What is being collected

Data Collection

Who is being recruted

From 21 to 65 Years
See all eligibility criteria
How is the trial designed

Observational
Study Start: December 2003
See protocol details

Summary

Principal SponsorNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Last updated: January 13, 2026
Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner

Study start date: December 1, 2003

Actual date on which the first participant was enrolled.

Objectives We aim to determine whether the development of a motor memory in the human spinal cord circuitry (expressed as a down regulation of the monosynaptic soleus H reflex) after a brief period of learning of a locomotor skill, is intrinsically encoded at the spinal cord level or if it is determined by descending suprasegmental influences. The results of this study would be useful for designing new rehabilitation strategies based upon manipulation of peripheral inputs aimed at activating spinal cord circuitry for motor recovery independent of the higher centers. Study population Seventy (70) healthy volunteers (median age 21-65) will participate in the study. Design Subjects will complete one training session (using a recumbent cycle ergometer) and will be tested physiologically and behaviorally once before training and four times after training through 14 to 16 days. Outcome measures We will assess homosynaptic depression of the soleus H reflex (an expression of the excitability of the alpha-motorneuron pool), a phenomenon that is not susceptible to descending suprasegmental influences but depends on the history of information arriving to the alpha-motorneuron from the periphery. Amount of homosynaptic depression will be correlated with the behavioral learning assessed by improvement in control of stepping speed.

Official TitleIntraspinal Plasticity Associated With Locomotor Learning 
NCT00073606
Principal SponsorNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Last updated: January 13, 2026
Sourced from a government-validated database.Claim as a partner

Protocol

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.
Design Details

70 patients to be enrolled

Total number of participants that the clinical trial aims to recruit.

Eligibility

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria: person's general health condition or prior treatments.
Criteria

Any sex

Biological sex of participants that are eligible to enroll.

From 21 to 65 Years

Range of ages for which participants are eligible to join.

Healthy volunteers not allowed

If individuals who are healthy and do not have the condition being studied can participate.

Criteria

* INCLUSION CRITERIA: Healthy volunteers (age 21 to 65 years) who are willing to participate and who are considered able to cylce for 16 minutes based on neurological and physical exams will be eligible for the study. Reproductive age women with a negative pregnancy test. EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Subjects with history of heart condition, unresponsive arterial hypertension, diabetes, chronic back pain, sciatica, peripheral neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, active joint deformity of arthritic origin, alcohol or drug abuse, psychiatric disorder requiring hospitalization or prolonged treatment, head injury with loss of consciousness, epilepsy. Subjects with history of hyperthyroidism or individuals receiving drugs acting primarily on the central nervous system or disorders of the blood coagulation system. Pregnant women.

Study Centers

These are the hospitals, clinics, or research facilities where the trial is being conducted. You can find the location closest to you and its status.

This study has 1 location

Suspended

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

Bethesda, United StatesSee the location
CompletedOne Study Center