Recruiting

Corticospinal & Reticulospinal

Sponsor:

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

Code:

NCT07814313

Conditions

Healthy Control

Spinal Cord Injury

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 19 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

CST PAS

RST PAS

sham PAS

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study will investigate how aging and spinal cord injury (SCI) affect the transmission and plasticity of the corticospinal and reticulospinal tracts, which are important pathways for motor control. The study includes two experiments. Experiment 1 will assess corticospinal and reticulospinal tract transmission to lower-limb muscles in older adults with and without SCI. Experiment 2 will examine how aging and spinal cord injury affect the body's ability to strengthen nerve pathways involved in movement. The investigators will compare two pathways that help control leg movement, the corticospinal and reticulospinal pathways, to determine whether aging affects these pathways differently and whether spinal cord injury has a greater effect on the corticospinal pathway.

Conditions

Healthy Control

Spinal Cord Injury

Study ID

NCT07814313

Start date

Aug 28, 2025

Status verified date

Sep, 2026

Completion date

Sep 30, 2031

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 30, 2030

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 19 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Male and females between 19-85 years;
  • Chronic SCI (≥ 1 years post-injury);
  • T10 or above - American Spinal Injury Association (AIS) Grade C, or D;
  • Ability to perform a small voluntary ankle dorsiflexion, knee extension, and ankle plantarflexion (as detected by presence of voluntary EMG activity in the rectus femoris, tibialis anterior, and soleus muscles) with at least one leg;
  • Ability to tolerate standing position;
  • Ability to initiate at least one step without the assistance of a therapist;
  • If ambulatory, ability to walk at a minimum speed of 0.1 m/s on a treadmill. Inclusion criteria for controls:
  • Male and females (19-85 years);
  • Able to perform dorsiflexion;
  • Able to walk.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Uncontrolled medical problems including pulmonary, cardiovascular, or orthopedic disease;
  • Any debilitating disease before the SCI that caused exercise intolerance;
  • Premorbid, ongoing major depression or psychosis, altered cognitive status;
  • History of head injury or stroke;
  • Pacemaker;
  • Metal plate in skull;
  • History of seizures;
  • Receiving drugs acting primarily on the central nervous system, which lower the seizure threshold, such as antipsychotic drugs (chlorpromazine, clozapine) or tricyclic antidepressants;
  • Pregnancy;
  • Ongoing cord compression or a syrinx in the spinal cord or spinal cord disease, such as spinal stenosis, spina bifida or herniated cervical disk;
  • implanted defibrillators or implanted neurostimulators;
  • have large ischaemic scars;
  • diagnosed sleep deprivation.

Exclusion criteria for controls:

\- Same as for subjects with SCI.

Study Design

Enrollment

300 participants

Anticipated

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

healthy control

spinal cord injury

Interventions

CST PAS

transcranial magnetic stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation are given at almost the same time to target brain-to-spinal cord connections

RST PAS

transcranial magnetic stimulation and peripheral nerve stimulation are given at almost the same time to target brainstem-to-spinal cord connections

sham PAS

the setup will look and feel the same to the participant as the CST PAS or RST PAS. But one or both of the stimulations is not actually delivered, or it is delivered in a way that does not affect the participant

Primary outcome measure

  • Motor evokoed potential [ Time Frame: Periprocedural ]
  • MVC [ Time Frame: Periprocedural ]
  • StartReact [ Time Frame: Periprocedural ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Monica Perez

312-238-2886mperez04@sralab.org

Locations

Shirley Ryan Abilitylab

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611

Contacts

Monica Perez

312-238-2886mperez04@sralab.org

More Information

Sponsor

Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

Last update posted

Sep 10, 2026

Last verified

Sep, 2026

Keywords

  • Spinal cord injury (SCI)
  • aging
  • motor control
  • motor recovery
  • plasticity

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-11. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Shirley Ryan AbilityLab on 2026-09-10.