Testing personalized brain stimulation in people with drug-resistant epilepsy and implanted electrodes
Tests brain stimulation tuned to each patient's brain activity in adults with epilepsy.
Plain-language title generated from the registry record
Registry title: Model-based Electrical Brain Stimulation
Key facts
- Where
- Los Angeles and San Francisco, United StatesSee the 2 sites
Where in United States
- University of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, United StatesTaking people
- University of California San FranciscoSan Francisco, United StatesTaking people
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Trial details
- Who runs it
- University of Southern California
- Trial code
- NCT05327387
- Record updated
- 22 September 2025
- Original description
Neuropsychiatric disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide with depressive disorders being one of the most disabling among them. Also, millions of patients do not respond to current medications or psychotherapy, which makes it critical to find an alternative therapy. Applying electrical stimulation at various brain targets has shown promise but there is a critical need to improve efficacy.Read full original descriptionShow less
Model-based Electrical Brain Stimulation
Neuropsychiatric disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide with depressive disorders being one of the most disabling among them. Also, millions of patients do not respond to current medications or psychotherapy, which makes it critical to find an alternative therapy. Applying electrical stimulation at various brain targets has shown promise but there is a critical need to improve efficacy.
Given inter- and intra-subject variabilities in neuropsychiatric disorders, this study aims to enable personalizing the stimulation therapy via i) tracking a patient's own symptoms based on their neural activity, and ii) a model of how their neural activity responds to stimulation therapy. The study will develop the modeling elements needed to realize a model-based personalized system for electrical brain stimulation to achieve this aim.
The study will provide proof-of-concept demonstration in epilepsy patients who already have intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) electrodes implanted for their standard clinical monitoring unrelated to this study, and who consent to being part of the study.
Inclusion: Patients being evaluated for surgical treatment of medication refractory epilepsy and brain tumors will be studied. ONLY patients with electrodes implanted based on clinical criteria to locate their seizure focus will be studied. Most patients are healthy adults, outside of their epilepsy and/or brain tumor; Subjects >= 18 are only included in this study; All patients with the above conditions and with implanted electrode arrays who are willing to participate and able to cooperate and follow research instructions will be recruited. However, analysis of research recording data will focus on those subjects with an IQ >= 80, with no impairments of reading, naming, or articulation (to minimize confounds such as abnormal language processing that may affect their self-reporting with the questionnaire), and with no cerebral pathology affecting the cortical regions from which recordings are made.
Exclusion: Patients who are unable to give informed consent due to a brain disorder will be excluded from the study, as it is very likely that they would be unable to carry out the tasks demanded by the study; Subjects < 18 years old will be excluded from this study due to the high concordance of developmental disorders (cognitive and language-related) in pediatric epilepsies; There will be no involvement of special classes of subjects, such as fetuses, neonates, pregnant women, children, prisoners, institutionalized individuals, or others who may be considered vulnerable populations.