Status:
COMPLETED
Enhanced Tactile Memory in the Blind
Lead Sponsor:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Conditions:
Blindness
Eligibility:
All Genders
Brief Summary
This study will determine if the brain regions in blind people that would normally be involved in vision are used instead to remember touch. Blind people have an enhanced sense of touch compared to si...
Detailed Description
In the blind, areas of the brain that would normally respond to visual stimuli instead of process information from other sensory modalities such as the somatosensory and auditory domains. Recent studi...
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion
- INCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Early Blind Subjects: Only compliant early blind subjects between the ages of 18 and 80 years who have little to no visual perception due to diseases affecting the peripheral components of the visual system, i.e., blind subjects without any further neurological problems, and with normal MRI brain scans, will be selected.
- Late Blind Subjects: Only compliant late blind subjects who have lost their vision after age 4 years due to diseases affecting the peripheral components of the visual system, i.e., blind subjects without any further neurological problems, and with normal MRI brain scans, will be selected.
- Sighted controls: Only compliant adult healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 80 years with no history of neurological and psychiatric illness who are able to concentrate and to perform simple attention tasks are eligible.
- Blind subjects: Early and late blind subjects (aged 18 to 80) will be included in this protocol.
- Sighted subjects: Healthy sighted (normal or corrected-to normal vision) matched in age, sex, and handedness to the early blind subjects.
- EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Exclusion criteria for the study will be ny current medical or surgical condition or psychiatric or neurological illness.
- Furthermore, any individual who is on medication with potential influence on nervous system function, who has a history of surgery with metallic implants or known history of metallic particles in the eye, cardiac pacemaker, intracardiac lines, neural stimulators, cochlear implants, pregnancy, or history of drug abuse will be excluded from the study.
Exclusion
Key Trial Info
Start Date :
January 1 2004
Trial Type :
OBSERVATIONAL
End Date :
January 1 2006
Estimated Enrollment :
45 Patients enrolled
Trial Details
Trial ID
NCT00076700
Start Date
January 1 2004
End Date
January 1 2006
Last Update
March 4 2008
Active Locations (1)
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1
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892