Testing of an Interface for Synchronizing tACS-DBS With a Phase-locked-loop

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT07139093

Enrollment

Registered

2025-08-24

Start date

2025-09-30

Completion date

2026-02-27

Last updated

2026-06-30

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

Conditions

Deep Brain Stimulation, Parkinson's Disease (PD)

Keywords

deep brain stimulation, transcranial alternating current stimulation, EEG, synchronization, brain-computer interface

Brief summary

The investigators aim to test an interface to phase-lock transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) for future studies investigating the effects of different time-lags between DBS and tACS on the behavioural and neural level. To test if the interface works in patients with DBS, the investigators record EEG during synchronized tACS-DBS in several patients. The investigators hypothesize that they can apply tACS at the desired phase-lags relative to DBS pulses and confirm this with EEG measurements of the DBS and tACS artifact.

Interventions

DEVICEDBS-coupled tACS

tACS will be applied in a phase-coupled manner, so that tACS and DBS are synchronized

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Intervention model description

Active DBS and active tACS with different phase-lags (at least 4: 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

35 Years to 85 Years

Healthy volunteers

Inclusion criteria

* Provision of written informed consent by the patient * Age 35 - 85 * patient groups: Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia * \>3 months after surgery for DBS

Exclusion criteria

* Epilepsy or history of seizures * Existence of heart pacemaker or other metal implants in the body (except DBS) * Pregnancy

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Phase-locking success (delay to intended phase)	during stimulation procedure	The investigators will measure the temporal precision of the locking of the tACS to the DBS pulses should be seen. To this end, the tACS-DBS artifact and the triggers given from the interface device will be analysed offline in MATLAB.

Countries

Germany

Contacts

PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORBettina C. Schwab, PhD

UKE Hamburg

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Jul 1, 2026