The purpose of this study is to determine whether a new medical technology can help reduce post-operative total knee or hip pain when combined with a Cognitive-Behavioral intervention (CBI).
This new medical technology, is called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), it uses a very small amount of electricity to temporarily stimulate specific areas of the brain thought to be involved in pain reduction. The electrical current passes through the skin, scalp, hair, and skull and requires no additional medication, sedation, or needles.
This study will investigate the effects of tDCS, the Cognitive-Behavioral (CB) intervention and their combination on pain among veterans following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) or total hip arthroplasty (THA). You may benefit in the form of decreased pain and opioid requirements following your knee or hip replacement surgery. However, benefit is only likely if you are randomized to one of the 3 (out of 4) groups.
This study hopes to determine the effects of these interventions and their combined effect on post-operative pain, opioid use and functioning during the 48-hour post-operative period following a total knee or hip replacement.
This study will examine the behaviors and brains of adults between the ages of 60 and 80. Our goal is to better understand changes associated with the aging process. This includes potential changes in behavior/cognition as well as potential biomarkers for these changes (i.e. biological data like DNA, brain scans or brain activity that are related to these changes). Participants in the study will complete a number of tests that measure their cognitive, language, and sensory abilities. We will collect information about their brains using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) and we will collect information about their genes using DNA extracted from blood samples. We will examine and compare the relationship between brain and behavior at 2 time points for the same 200 individuals. All data collected in this study will be stored in the Aging Brain Cohort repository study.
This study will examine the neural circuitry associated with craving, behavioral disinhibition, and threat-reactivity. The study will involve 2 visits. During the first visit, participants will complete questionnaires and interviews in a private room and do some tests to measure alcohol use. During the second visit, participants will complete a neuroimaging scan of their brain.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has shown the potential to improve symptoms in patients with motor deficits, however its effects have not been consistent in randomized studies to date, limiting widespread adoption of this technology. A critical gap in our knowledge is a detailed understanding of how tDCS affects motor areas in the brain. We propose using tDCS while recording directly from motor cortex using subdural electrocorticography (sECoG) in patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery. We expect this novel approach to broaden our understanding of tDCS application and possibly lead to therapeutic advances in this population.
The purpose of this study is to use neuroimaging to understand how networks in the brain change over time. Although the single most significant risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) is age, the neurobiological processes underlying the transition from normal aging to AD are not well understood. Our group of researchers has developed ways to use MRI to detect small changes in certain parts of the brain. We will use neuroimaging to understand how the connections in the brain change over time in healthy aging. The goal is to discover which brain changes are present in healthy aging.
Participants will have two study visits (about 2 years apart) where they will undergo tests to assess mental function, fill out questionnaires, and undergo a blood draw, brain MRI and PET scan and provide a saliva sample. At the second visit, participants will not repeat PET scan. Participants will continue to be followed longitudinally every two years as long as the study is funded.
Participants are required to have a Co-Participant accompany them for the first portion of each visit. This individual must be a reliable informant that has contact with the participant at least once per week.
Older adults typically have trouble identifying the speech they hear, especially in noisy environments. Fortunately, compared to younger adults, older adults are better able to compensate for difficulties identifying the speech they hear by recruiting the visual system. However, the extent to which older adults can benefit from visual input, and how this influence relates to age-related changes in brain structure and function, have not been thoroughly investigated. The general purpose of this study is to determine how age-related changes in brain structure and function affect how well people hear and see. This study seeks participants with normal hearing to mild hearing loss, who also have normal or corrected-to-normal vision.
With this research study, we want to learn if methylphenidate (Ritalin® and others) helps people with Alzheimer's disease and apathy (lack of interest or concern for things that others find moving or exciting).
The current investigation uses a brain-based technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which has helped to treat depression, to try to stimulate those brain regions understood to be essential to emotional experience and impaired in PTSD. In summary, the aim is to enhance emotion engagement and regulation and possibly uncover new brain-based interventions that could help ready the brain so an individual with PTSD could then fully engage and thus optimize emotion-focused psychotherapy.
Rehabilitation interventions including resistance training, functional and task-specific therapy, and gait or locomotor training have been shown to be successful in improving motor function in individuals with neurologic disease or injury. Recent investigations conducted in our laboratory indicate that intense resistance training coupled with task-specific functional training lead to significant gains in functional motor recovery. Similarly, gait rehabilitation involving intense treadmill training and/or task-specific locomotor training has been shown to be effective in improving locomotor ability. However, the underlying neural adaptations associated with these therapeutic approaches are not well understood. Our primary goal is to understand the motor control underpinnings of neurologic rehabilitation in order to apply this knowledge to future generations of therapeutic interventions.