Spine and Brain Stimulation for Movement Recovery After Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Stimulation of the spinal cord and brain represents a new experimental therapy that may have potential to restore movement after spinal cord injury. While some scientists have begun to study the effect of electrical stimulation on patient's ability to walk and move their legs after lower spinal cord injury, the use of stimulation of the upper (cervical) spine to restore arm and hand function after cervical spinal cord injury remains less well explored. The investigators are doing this research study to improve understanding of whether cervical spinal cord stimulation and brain stimulation can be used to improve arm and hand function. To do this, the investigators will combine spine stimulation (in the form of electrical stimulation from electrical stimulation wires temporarily implanted next to the cervical spinal cord) and brain stimulation (in the form of transcranial magnetic stimulation). The investigators will perform a series of experiments over 29 days to study whether these forms of stimulation can be applied and combined to provide improvement in arm and hand function.

NCT Number	NCT06867809
Lead Sponsor	Jason Carmel Collaborators: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Conditions	Spinal Cord Injury, Spinal Cord Injury Cervical
Enrollment	20 participants
Start Date	2026-01-15
Primary Completion	2026-10-31 (estimated)
Study Completion	2027-03-31 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-10-30