---
title: Improve attention during brain stimulation
nct_id: NCT06899022
phase: NA
status: RECRUITING
sponsor: University of Nebraska
study_type: INTERVENTIONAL
canonical_url: "https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06899022"
clinicaltrials_gov: "https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06899022"
last_fetched: "2026-05-10T14:04:25.016Z"
source: "Parkinson's Pathways (curated)"
---
# Improve attention during brain stimulation

**Goal (in five words):** Improve attention during brain stimulation

**Official Title:** Investigating the Role of Attention in Perceptual and Cognitive Consequences of Parkinson's Disease

**Trial ID:** [NCT06899022](https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06899022)

## Key Facts

- **Phase:** NA
- **Status:** RECRUITING
- **Study Type:** INTERVENTIONAL
- **Sponsor:** University of Nebraska
- **Target Enrollment:** 138 participants
- **Start Date:** 2025-09-22
- **Completion Date:** 2028-02
- **Conditions:** Essential Tremor, Parkinson's Disease (PD), Dystonias
- **Interventions:** Normal therapeutic DBS, Reduced current DBS, Reduced frequency DBS
- **Intervention Types:** OTHER

## Summary For Families

The goal is to understand how attention changes contribute to the perceptual and cognitive problems people with Parkinson's or essential tremor sometimes experience, especially in relation to deep brain stimulation. The team will compare normal therapeutic DBS with reduced current and reduced frequency settings, since DBS delivers electrical pulses to targets like the STN, GPi, or VIM to reduce motor symptoms, and changing the strength or timing of that stimulation can alter attention, perception, and how DBS interacts with medications such as levodopa. Some participants will do perceptual tasks during awake DBS implantation with microelectrode recordings, and others will have brief, controlled adjustments to their implanted DBS while reporting judgments with a button or slider. Eligible people are age 19 to 90 with Parkinson's or essential tremor who are scheduled for new therapeutic DBS, can follow task instructions and use a button or mouse, and can tolerate short changes in stimulation; age-matched healthy controls are also recruited, while people with poor visual acuity or who cannot complete tasks are excluded.

## Eligibility

- **Minimum age:** 19 Years
- **Maximum age:** 90 Years
- **Sex:** ALL

### Full Criteria

```
Inclusion Criteria

* All Participants (Aim 1):

  * Ability and willingness to provide signed informed consent for this study
  * Ability to express perceptual judgments through a button press or mouse- controlled computerized slider
  * Age 19 - 90 years
* DBS Participants (Aim 1):

  * Diagnosis of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) or dystonia (DT).
  * Scheduled for new implantation of a therapeutic DBS device targeted to subthalamic nucleus (STN), ventral intermediate nucleus of thalamus (VIM) or internal globus pallidus (GPi)
* Comparison Participants (Aim 1):

  o Selection by age matching to participants in PD group
* Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) and dystonia (DT) Participants (Aim 2):

  * Ability and willingness to provide signed informed consent for this study
  * Ability to express perceptual judgments through a button press or mouse- controlled computerized slider
  * Age 19 - 90 years
  * Scheduled for awake DBS implantation with clinical micro-electrode recordings (MER)
  * Willing and able to engage in tasks during an awake surgical procedure
* Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) and dystonia (DT) Participants (Aim 3):

  * Ability and willingness to provide signed informed consent for this study
  * Ability to express perceptual judgments through a button press or mouse- controlled computerized slider
  * Age 19 - 90 years
  * Willing to undergo acute manipulations of DBS
  * Able to tolerate acute changes of DBS

Exclusion Criteria

* All Participants (Aim 1):

  * Corrected visual acuity insufficient to perceptually judge face stimuli
  * Inability to understand task instructions or complete task requirements
* DBS Participants (Aim 1):

  o Insufficient therapeutic control of motor symptoms to engage in tasks requiring button press or use of a mouse to control a slider
* Healthy Comparison Participants (Aim 1):

  o History of neurodegenerative disorder
* Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) and dystonia (DT) Participants (Aim 2):

  * Corrected visual acuity insufficient to perceptually judge face stimuli
  * Inability to understand task instructions or complete task requirements
  * Not undergoing awake DBS implantation
  * Uncorrected visual acuity insufficient to perceptually judge face stimuli
* Parkinson's disease (PD), essential tremor (ET) and dystonia (DT) Participants (Aim 3):

  * Corrected visual acuity insufficient to perceptually judge face stimuli
  * Inability to understand task instructions or complete task requirements
  * Failure of DBS to achieve a therapeutic effect on motor symptoms
```

## Locations (1)

- University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States _(41.2563, -95.9404)_
  - Dulce V Maroni, PhD — (CONTACT) — 402-836-9751 — dmaroni@unmc.edu
  - Christopher K Kovach, PhD — (PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR)

## Central Contacts

- Christopher K Kovach, PhD — (CONTACT) — 319-471-3372 — ckovach@unmc.edu
- Dulce Maroni, PhD — (CONTACT) — 402-836-9751 — dmaroni@unmc.edu

---

*Canonical: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06899022*  
*HTML version: https://parkinsonspathways.com/trial/NCT06899022*  
*Source data: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06899022*