Can gentle brain pulses sharpen aging minds?
NCT ID NCT05910619
First seen Jun 26, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
This study tests whether a device that sends gentle magnetic pulses to specific brain areas can improve thinking and memory in older adults. It includes 20 people aged 65 to 84—half with mild dementia and half without. Participants receive either real or sham stimulation to see if the treatment leads to measurable cognitive improvements.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- transcranial pulse stimulation (a device that delivers magnetic pulses to the brain)
- What this could lead to
- If it works, this could point toward a non-invasive way to improve cognitive function in older adults with mild dementia.
- What could go wrong
- This is a very early, small trial with only 20 participants, so results may not apply widely. The treatment is experimental and may not produce meaningful benefits.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 20 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Feb 2024
- Expected to finish
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Dec 2026
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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65 to 84 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Men and women * Age: 65 to 84 years * English speaking * Physically mobile with no history of balance difficulties or major falls * For the typically-aging older adult group, phone screening performance on the TICS must be greater than or equal to 33 points, and cognitive performance of 26 points or greater on the MoCA and a Sum of Boxes score of 0 on the Clinical Dementia Rating scale administered to the participant's informant at the initial visit * For the Mild dementia group, phone screening performance on the TICS must be between 21 and 32 points, and subsequent cognitive performance of on the MoCA must be \<23 with a CDR Sum of Boxes score between 4.5 and 9.0 as administered to the participants known informant at the initial visit. Exclusion Criteria: * Neurological disorders unrelated to dementia / AD (e.g., Parkinson's disease, stroke, seizures, traumatic brain injury) * Evidence of greater-than-mild dementia/AD (based on informant CDR Sum of Boxes score greater than 9.0 or MoCA \<10) * Past opportunistic brain infection * Major psychiatric illness (schizophrenia, intractable affective disorder, current substance dependence diagnosis or severe major depression and/or suicidality) or any history of agitation and/or delirium * Unstable (e.g., cancer other than basal cell skin) and chronic (e.g., diabetes mellitus) medical conditions * MRI contraindications (e.g., pregnancy, claustrophobia, metal implants that are contraindicated for MRI and TPS) * Physical impairment precluding motor response or lying still for one hour and inability to walk two blocks without stopping or without balance difficulties * Drug exclusions include those medications that are known to have cognitively sedating or altering effects as well medications with a strong anticholinergic burden or CNS effects. Participants should be stable on any recently altered medications/dosages for at least four weeks prior to beginning the study. Medications will be reviewed during the interview for the purpose of identification of contraindicated pharmacological agents with common cognitive side-effects * Other history of medical conditions that may increase risk of cerebrovascular events, including prior heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation * Hearing or vision deficits that will not allow for reliable standardized cognitive assessment; i.e. colorblindness, inability to hear through headphones (with or without hearing aids), macular degeneration or other significant diseases that cause severe loss of vision. If vision is corrected with lenses to appropriate levels, then participant will be eligible * Left-handedness and ambidextrousness, as these individuals have a higher percentage rate of atypical functional lateralization for brain functions, which would significantly interfere with interpretability of brain data * Hemophilia or other blood clotting disorders or thrombosis * Corticosteroid treatment within the last six weeks before the first treatment
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Florida
RECRUITINGGainesville, Florida, 32610, United States
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