Cerebello-thalamo-cortical Coupling in Essential Tremor

Cerebello-thalamo-cortical Coupling in Essential Tremor: Effects of High Frequency tACS of the Cerebellum

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02346409

Acronym

CERESTIM

Enrollment

Registered

2015-01-27

Start date

2015-02-04

Completion date

2018-02-16

Last updated

2025-08-29

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Essential Tremor

Brief summary

Essential tremor (ET) is a frequent and disabling disorder with progressive worsening of postural tremor of the upper limbs that impairs most of the manual activities of every day life (feeding, drinking, etc.). Although the pathophysiology of essential tremor (ET) is not fully elucidated, tremor is associated with abnormal activity within different brain regions, in particular the thalamus and the cerebellum. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus (VIM-Thal) reverses the symptoms of tremor but is an invasive procedure. Transcranial stimulation of the cerebellum may represent a non-invasive therapeutic option for ET patients. Here, the investigators propose to test the efficacy of cerebellar stimulation in 15 ET patients previously operated for DBS of the thalamus. To further understand how this treatment provokes tremor reduction, the investigators will analyse the brain neuronal activity in 13 others ET patients candidate to thalamic DBS by using combined electrophysiological recordings of the thalamus (with the electrodes implanted), the cerebellum and the cortex with magnetoencephalography.

Interventions

DEVICEtACS of the cerebellum

tACS of the cerebellum

Study design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 75 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* age below 75 years * diagnosis of essential tremor according to the criteria of the Tremor Investigation Group and the Consensus statement of the Movement Disorder Society Group (ref) * health insurance * signed informed written consent

Exclusion criteria

* other neurological disorders * medications that interact with or influence brain excitability * significant brain lesions detected in MRI

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
The neuronal activity in the cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathway	1 day	LFP, MEG and EMG activity recordings

Countries

France

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026