Pharmacological Modulation of Brain Oscillations in Memory Processing
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2026-11-30
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
The goal of this study is to learn about the effects of scopolamine (an anticholinergic drug)
on areas of the brain involved in memory, and changes it may have on brain activity. The
investigators will do this by testing epileptic patients who are already undergoing
intracranial surgery for seizure monitoring, and measuring the activity from the brain areas
being assessed.
The main questions it aims to answer are 1) whether scopolamine changes memory activity
solely at encoding (the time when the person perceives and determines to remember an item or
event) as has previously been found, or if it also can selectively impact retrieval (when the
item or event which has been processed is recalled or remembered), and 2) what the nature of
the brain activity changes is.
Participants will complete two treatment arms. One of these will be with the drug, and the
other will be with a saline solution, so that the participants are unaware which session the
actual drug has been received. Patients will complete a verbal and/or spatial task each of
the two days. An anesthesiologist will administer either the drug or the saline at a critical
point which addresses both of the research questions.
Researchers will compare the brain activity between the two treatment arms to determine what
brain activity changes, and at what time point during memory formation.
Phase:
Early Phase 1
Details
Lead Sponsor:
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Collaborator:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)