K08 VR Fear Conditioning

Intracranial Recording and Stimulation of the Human Hippocampal-Amygdala Circuit During Virtual Reality Fear Conditioning

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT07216222

Enrollment

Registered

2025-10-14

Start date

2025-03-01

Completion date

2030-02-28

Last updated

2025-10-14

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

Conditions

Anxiety and Fear, PTSD, Veteran

Brief summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn how people respond to fear-related experiences in a virtual reality (VR) environment. The study will also look at how brain activity and body responses are connected to learning and memory of fear. To do so, we recruit individuals who are already implanted with a Responsive Neurostimulator (RNS) device for the treatment of epilepsy. This research may help improve our understanding of anxiety disorders and how to better treat them in the future. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1) How do people learn to associate certain cues in VR with feelings of fear or safety? 2) What brain and body responses happen during fear learning? Participants will: 1) Wear a virtual reality headset and experience different environments and sounds, 2) Have their brain activity, heart rate, and sweating measured, and 3) Receive safe, mild electrical pulses through the RNS device during the study to help study fear learning. Participants will attend one or more study sessions, each lasting about 3-4 hours.

Interventions

DEVICEDeep Brain Stimulation

Deep brain stimulation via the Responsive Neurostimulator (RNS) device.

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 70 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Male * Female * Between 18 and 70 years of age * Adequate visual and auditory acuity to allow neuropsychological testing * Have undergone surgical placement of NeuroPace RNS System for the treatment of epilepsy or post-traumatic stress disorder

Exclusion criteria

\- History of traumatic brain injury

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Intracranial EEG activity	Baseline	Power in the theta band (\ 3-12 Hz).
Skin conductance activity	Baseline	Electrodermal response during the fear conditioning experiment, as quantified by changes in electrical conductance between electrodes placed on the palm.
Heart rate	Baseline	—

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

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