Scientists watch tremors up close to unlock brain secrets
NCT ID NCT03027310
First seen Jun 25, 2026 · Last updated Sep 18, 2026 · Updated 7 times
Summary
This study looked at 85 people with tremor conditions like Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia, plus healthy volunteers. Researchers used tests like brain scans, electrical recordings, and movement tasks to learn how the brain controls movement and what goes wrong in tremor. No new treatment was tested; the goal was to gather knowledge and train specialists.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Participants
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85 people
The number who actually took part.
- Started
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May 2017
- Finished
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Mar 2022
- Lead sponsor
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A government research agency
The lead sponsor is the US National Institutes of Health.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
Who is studied
Experimental subjects will include healthy volunteer subjects and patients with tremor syndromes including, but not limited to ET, PD-tremor, and dystonic tremor. The diagnosis will be made by a movement disorders neurologist at the NINDS movement disorders clinics. Healthy volunteers will be recruited for the following purposes: (1) to optimize data acquisition and analysis techniques; and (2) to serve as negative controls for clinical, imaging, and biological variables measured in the patient cohorts. Without data obtained from healthy volunteers, there is no way to determine whether subtle findings in tremor (e.g., physiological tremor) are truly abnormal. The inclusion of healthy volunteers therefore allows to correctly threshold and quantify observed abnormalities. Healthy volunteers may also include non-affected family members of patients with tremor
- Ages
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18 years and older
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
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 FOR TREMOR PATIENTS: * Patients diagnosed with a tremor syndrome, including, but not limited to * Essential tremor (per definition of the Tremor Research Group) * Parkinson disease (per UK Brain Bank criteria) * Focal tremor such as isolated head tremor, voice tremor * Task-specific tremor such as primary writing tremor * Orthostatic tremor * Patients with other tremor syndromes such as dystonic tremor, intention tremor, etc. * Age 18 or older * Able to give informed consent * Agree to not drink caffeine or alcohol for 12 hours before phenotyping and selected sub-study visits because both agents can modify brain activity and may confound outcome measures. INCLUSION CRITERIA FOR HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS: * Age 18 or older. * Able to give informed consent. * Agree to not consume caffeine or alcohol for 12 hours before selected sub-study visits because both agents may modify the activity of the brain during the study. EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR TREMOR PATIENTS: * Problematic alcohol use, as defined by a score of 8 or higher on the WHO Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). * History of a brain tumor, a stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy or a history of seizures. * History of psychotic disorder, Bipolar Disorder or a current depressive episode. * History or clinical evidence of another neurologic disorder than a tremor syndrome as defined above, which may interfere with the ability to comply with protocol requirements or interpret the obtained results. EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS: * Have abnormal findings of clinical significance on the neurological examination that may affect the scientific integrity of the study * Problematic alcohol use, as defined by a score of 8 or higher on the WHO Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) * History of a brain tumor, a stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy or a history of seizures. * History of psychotic disorder, Bipolar Disorder or a current depressive episode. ADDITIONAL EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR MOVEMENT DISORDER PATIENTS AND HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS SPECIFICALLY FOR MRI: We will follow the NMR Center guidelines for MR safety. Some of the exclusions are: * Have non-MRI compatible metal in the body, such as a cardiac pacemaker, brain stimulator, shrapnel, surgical metal, clips in the brain or on blood vessels, cochlear implants, artificial heart valves or ferromagnetic fragments in the eye or oral cavity as these make having an MRI unsafe. * Unable to lie flat on the back for the expected length of the experiment. * Have uncontrolled movements of the head. * Have an abnormality on the brain imaging or neurologic examination not related to the diagnosis. * Uncomfortable being in a small space for the expected length of the experiment. * Non-removable body piercing or tattoo posing MRI risk * Pregnancy. ADDITIONAL EXCLUSION CRITERIA FOR TREMOR PATIENTS AND HEALTHY VOLUNTEERS FOR TMS AND MRI: * Ferromagnetic metal in the cranial cavity or eye, e.g. aneurysm clip or ocular foreign body. * Implanted electronic device including deep brain stimulation systems.
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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.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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National Institutes of Health Clinical Center
Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, United States
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Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.
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