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This study uses an advanced MRI scan to better understand how the brain produces and uses energy in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). What we learn may improve our understanding of PD and help guide future treatments.

This research is being done to collect blood and placenta samples to better understand how pregnancy impacts the health of mother and child. The goal of this research is to better understand what causes some pregnancy complications and how this impacts the longer term health of mothers and children.

Researchers are studying how the brain processes visual information and plans actions. Participants will play the popular arcade game Tetris and watch replays of their gameplay while researchers measure brain activity using a safe, non-invasive EEG. The results may help researchers better understand how the brain solves problems and plans future actions.

This study will help to identify challenges and barriers to self-performing anal cancer screening tests, and may identify unique ways to make this form of screening easier, more cost-effective, and more frequently performed. We believe that it has the potential to minimize the frequency of both disease and death from anal cancer among high-risk patient groups.

We are recruiting only healthy participants who do not have REM sleep behavior disorder. The information gained from this study will help the investigators understand more about REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), and the possible underlying neurologic disorders that can cause RBD.

This research study is for participants who have an inherited neuromuscular disorder or neurogenetic disorder, or family members who are unaffected by such disorders

The purpose of the University of Minnesota (UMN) movement disorders research registry is to connect individuals interested in participating in Movement Disorders research with researchers at the University of Minnesota. The registry will allow individuals from the community to share their contact information, basic information about their health diagnoses, and research studies they participate in. This information will be stored for future research contact and be used to determine which movement disorders studies (if any) that an individual may qualify for. Click 'Visit the Study Website' to learn more and to sign up for the registry.

Bilateral coordination (ability to use both arms) is poorly understood in stroke. We are using a robotic device to measure bilateral coordination in different tasks in individuals with chronic stroke and people of the same age who have not had a stroke.

To maintain a biorepository (sample bank) of biological samples from different tobacco users and non-users to investigate how tobacco and nicotine products affect our bodies. The samples will be used by researchers to develop methods to look for biological “markers” (biomarkers), or chemical changes in the body, that occur due to tobacco or nicotine exposure. The goal is to eventually use these biomarkers to improve detection, prevention, and treatment strategies for tobacco-related diseases.

We are studying the brain patterns of people who have anorexia nervosa and those who don't have anorexia nervosa. We will look at MRIs, behavioral measures, and questionnaires to see if we can identify the brain activity associated with disgust. There will be a follow-up at 6 and 12 months.

The goal of this study is to develop and test a new way of measuring how much effort and strain the jaw muscles can handle before a person begins to feel specific levels of pain or fatigue. This involves a controlled jaw exercise task designed to better understand the relationship between jaw muscle effort, physical stress in the muscles, and how each person experiences discomfort. It is hoped that the information learned in this study will help researchers refine this new jaw testing method and confirm whether it accurately measures jaw muscle effort and discomfort. This may support future research that improves how jaw pain conditions are understood and eventually lead to better, more individualized treatments for people with jaw muscle and jaw joint disorders.

Medications used to treat Parkinson's disease will be delivered using a sachet ; placed in the oral/buccal cavity (between cheek and gum of lower jaw). This study may be a good fit for you if you are healthy, between the ages of 18 and 65, and aren’t currently taking regular medications. We expect that you will be in this research study for one visit, approximately 7 hours total. Compensation and transportation expenses will be provided.

This study aims to test the accuracy and speed of the pABR for future clinical use by recruiting infants and adults with a range of hearing loss profiles from normal hearing to severe loss.

This study is designed to better understand the mechanisms contributing to impaired activation of leg muscles in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and test if stimulation of a nerve at the neck (vagus nerve) can improve muscle activation, walking and balance. People can participate in one of two experiments, or both. Both experiments will test the muscle activation patterns in the lower leg when producing low levels of force. We will also assess walking and balance. Experiment 2 will test muscle activation patterns, walking and balance before and after vagus nerve stimulation. We are also asking people who don’t have PD and are 21 to 76 years old and match in age and sex to participants to undergo the same study procedures.

This research study is being done so that we can better understand why women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may have higher risk of cardiovascular disease as they get older. This study looks at how trauma and PTSD affect blood vessels in young women. The study is also testing whether a dietary supplement called beetroot juice might help improve the function of blood vessels in women suffering from PTSD. Study participation involves coming to the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis for two visits. Each of the visits with take about 3 and a half hours.

We are investigating ways to improve methods of brain stimulation. The purpose of this study is to try a new way to deliver transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the brain. Participants will be asked to come in for three separate 4-hour research visits. Each research visit will take place approximately seven days after the previous one. During the research visits, we will put a mesh cap on the head to measure electrical activity in the brain (also known as an EEG). Once the cap is on, we will use a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) device to deliver small pulses of electricity to the brain to see how it reacts to the stimulation.

The purpose of this study is to describe current knowledge and opinions about anal cancer screening among men who have sex with men (MSM), as well as their experience receiving guideline-compliant care aimed at anal cancer risk reduction using a large-scale survey disseminated via social media.

Feeding problems are common among preterm infants. Left untreated they can cause problems that impact an infant’s ability to breathe and get the necessary nutrition they need to grow. In this study, we will learn how healthy term infants without feeding impairments feed. The SMART bottle system is made up of a disposable pressure-sensing nipple that monitors suction pressures during a feed, a wireless module that collects the measurements and sends them over Bluetooth to a tablet receiver. This system is compatible with Dr. Brown’s bottle systems. This part of the study will include 50 preterm infants.

This study is to investigate, validate and address remaining technical challenges of new imaging techniques used on a portable MRI machine. The research study consists of a one-time study visit that could last approximately 2.5 hours.

The purpose of this study is to study the evolution of early life risk factors that may lead to cancer and other conditions. This is a prospective cohort study of families who reside in Minnesota.

The purpose of this study to examine the effects of cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol on the formation of DNA damage in the mouth. The overall goal is to identify DNA damage that may be important to the development of head and neck cancers.

In this study, participants will complete two to three appointments within two weeks. During these appointments, they will complete interviews and questionnaires about their life experiences and mental health. An EEG test will also be conducted while they complete computerized tasks. We are recruiting two groups of participants for this study. One group will include individuals who experience hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, or a psychosis spectrum disorder (i.e., schizophrenia), and the other group will be individuals who do not have a diagnosis or family history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or autism spectrum disorder.

This study is about assessing compliance, satisfaction, and usability of a take-home device for tinnitus management, specifically a bimodal neuromodulation device using customized acoustic stimulation paired with electrical ear stimulation. This study also examines whether integrative health (IH) practices – such as deep breathing – paired with bimodal neuromodulation can enhance long-term plasticity of the brain and reduce stress.

This study looks at perceptual abilities in healthy children and children with significant movement difficulties, a condition called developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The study involves a single session of using virtual reality (VR) to look at catching skills. This will help us to better understand movement difficulties in children so we can design programs to support them.

Study to examine the physiological responses that occur during a hot flush in postmenopausal women

This study will examine the brain activation associated with the transition between movements in Parkinson’s disease, and if these changes are related to the development of problems with moving (like freezing of gait) and thinking. We will look at brain activity associated with the vestibular (inner ear) and cortical (surface of the brain) systems. People with Parkinson’s disease (especially people with freezing of gait) sometimes have difficulty initiating changes in movement types, such as going from standing to walking, turning, or switching between slow and fast repetitive movements. The difficulty in movement transitions may be associated with an overactive vestibular system (inner ear) or cortical system. In each experiment in this study, we expect about 20-25 participants with Parkinson’s disease and freezing of gait, 20-25 participants with Parkinson’s without freezing of gait, and 20-25 control participants

The purpose of this research is to better understand balance and walking in a healthy adult population to compare to patients with Parkinson’s Disease. This research study uses small wearable devices that attach to your clothing and can measure your body’s location while performing walking and balance tests. We expect that you will be in this research study at the Minnesota State Fair for approximately 10-15 minutes.

Researchers from UMN's Auditory Perception and Cognition Lab are looking for volunteers for a study to better understand hearing loss and help improve diagnoses and treatment.

This study is being done to better understand hearing difficulties that may occur after repeated exposure to blasts in military service members. Researchers will compare hearing and listening abilities between individuals with and without a history of blast exposure to help improve future prevention and treatment strategies for hearing-related problems.

The purpose of this study is to characterize balance and postural control in children with autism spectrum disorder and those with typical development. Participants will be asked to complete one lab visit. During this visit, parents will be asked to complete questionnaires about their family demographics and child behaviors, and their child's balance performance will be assessed using a virtual reality-based balance assessment. We are recruiting two groups of parents and children with ages ranging between 7-15 years to participate in this study. One group will include children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders and their parents and the other group will be typically developing children who have no developmental, neurological or medical conditions and their parents.