Brain Networks and Consciousness

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Essential Tremor; Parkinson Disease; Loss of Consciousness; Anesthesia

Treatments: Drug: Propofol

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04502550

STU-2021-0396

Details and patient eligibility

About

General anesthesia (GA) is a medically induced state of unresponsiveness and unconsciousness, which millions of people experience every year. Despite its ubiquity, a clear and consistent picture of the brain circuits mediating consciousness and responsiveness has not emerged. Studies to date are limited by lack of direct recordings in human brain during medically induced anesthesia. Our overall hypothesis is that the current model of consciousness, originally proposed to model disorders and recovery of consciousness after brain injury, can be generalized to understand mechanisms of consciousness more broadly. This will be studied through three specific aims. The first is to evaluate the difference in anesthesia sensitivity in patients with and without underlying basal ganglia pathology. Second is to correlate changes in brain circuitry with induction and emergence from anesthesia. The third aim is to evaluate the effects of targeted deep brain stimulation on anesthesia induced loss and recovery of consciousness. This study focuses on experimentally studying these related brain circuits by taking advantage of pathological differences in movement disorder patient populations undergoing deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. DBS is a neurosurgical procedure that is used as treatment for movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, and provides a mechanism to acquire brain activity recordings in subcortical structures. This study will provide important insight by using human data to shed light on the generalizability of the current model of consciousness. The subject's surgery for DBS will be prolonged by up to 40 minutes in order to record the participant's brain activity and their responses to verbal and auditory stimuli.

Enrollment: 144 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Willingness and ability to cooperate during conscious operative procedure for up to 40 minutes
• Clinical diagnosis of Parkinson's disease or essential tremor
• Preoperative MRI without evidence of cortical or subdural adhesions or vascular abnormalities

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with recent use (within one week) of anticoagulant or antiplatelet agent use
• Neurocognitive testing indicating amnestic cognitive deficits
• History of intolerance of propofol or medical indications to use an anesthetic other than propofol

Trial design

144 participants in 7 patient groups

Parkinson's Disease patients with DBS, no stimulation

Description:

This cohort will serve as as the observed group, displaying basal ganglia pathology. A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Experiments will be completed with DBS off.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Essential Tremor patients with DBS

Description:

This cohort will serve as a control group (no basal ganglia pathology). A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a TCI system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Experiments will be completed with DBS off.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Parkinson's Disease patients with DBS, Gpi stimulation

Description:

This cohort will serve as as the observed group, displaying basal ganglia pathology. A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Participants will be stimulated at the Gpi via DBS leads during propofol induced loss of consciousness.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Parkinson's Disease patients with DBS, Gpe stimulation

Description:

This cohort will serve as as the observed group, displaying basal ganglia pathology. A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Participants will be stimulated at the Gpe via DBS leads during propofol induced loss of consciousness.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Parkinson's Disease patients undergoing DBS surgery, Gpe stimulation

Description:

A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Participants will be stimulated at the Gpe via DBS leads, and cortical activity will be recorded via ECoG during propofol induced loss of consciousness.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Parkinson's Disease patients undergoing DBS surgery, Gpi stimulation

Description:

A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Participants will be stimulated at the Gpi via DBS leads, and cortical activity will be recorded via ECoG during propofol induced loss of consciousness.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol

Parkinson's Disease patients undergoing DBS surgery, no stimulation

Description:

A syringe pump controlled by Stanpump implementing the Eleveld Pharmacokinetics-Pharmacodynamics (PK-PD) model for propofol will be used as a targeted controlled infusion (TCI) system to achieve plasma target propofol concentrations. Target effect-site concentration of propofol will be started at 1.4 μg/mL and will be increased by 0.3 μg/mL with reassessment until endpoints are achieved. Participants will not receive any stimulation via DBS leads, and cortical activity will be recorded via ECoG during propofol induced loss of consciousness.

Treatment:

Drug: Propofol