Search Results

This research is being performed to examine how the spleen moves during breathing in various body positions and breathing conditions. Physical measurements of the participant's body will be recorded (weight, height, and body dimensions) and then noninvasive recordings of the spleen and breathing patterns will be recorded. The spleen motion will be measured using standard abdominal ultrasound imaging, and breathing will be measured with accelerometers (small devices about the size of a quarter that measure the movement of the chest during breathing).

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 is being done to learn more about how hormone changes related to menstrual cycle disruption and underfueling in highly trained endurance athletes may affect blood pressure regulation, blood vessel function, and cardiovascular health. Researchers will measure heart rate, blood pressure, blood vessel function, and nervous system activity in endurance athletes to better understand how these factors differ between athletes.

This research study aims to develop a more efficient hearing test that uses brain activity measured with electroencephalographic (EEG) while listening to narrated stories to identify hearing loss at different sound frequencies.

This study is about decision making in psychosis spectrum disorders, like schizophrenia. We will study how a single dose of a study agent called modafinil changes how people complete computer tasks and changes how the brain functions. We hope to improve our understanding of psychosis to help people in the future.

We will enroll healthy pregnant women (following enrollment, all subsequent study procedures will be completed postpartum) or postpartum women on hormonal birth control or no hormonal birth control with either a recent history of smoking and a desire to remain abstinent after childbirth, or who are currently smoking and motivated to quit smoking. Participants will be recruited throughout the continental United States (US). Participants living in Minnesota (our clinical site) will receive a 12-week course of exogenous progesterone. Participants will be followed for six months with remote visits, self-administered surveys, and self-collection of dried blood spots to measure hormones and smoking-related biomarkers.

Respiratory illnesses, including ear and sinus infections, colds, and pneumonias, are among the most common infectious diseases affecting Minnesotans across their lifespan. These diseases can be caused by many different types of microbes—bacteria, viruses and fungi—and different types of microbes may require different kinds of treatment. This research is being done to learn more about the specific types of microbes that cause respiratory infections in children and adults across the state of Minnesota over time. Antimicrobial resistance happens when microbes develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them. Through this study, we will learn which types of genes are carried by microbes living in the respiratory tract by collecting and analyzing nasal and oral specimen.

This research is being completed to examine the cells, brain imaging, and speech in individuals with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder who are taking serotonergic medications such as Citalopram, Escitalopram, Fluoxetine, Fluvoxamine, Paroxetine and Sertraline. The purpose of examining these is to try and see if we can predict signs of Dementia with Lewy bodies (a progressive form of dementia with an increase in decline of thinking, reasoning, and other functions). This may benefit others by enabling us to diagnose Dementia with Lewy Bodies sooner rather than later.

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.

The purpose of this study is to better understand heart and blood vessel health in adults conceived through assisted reproductive technology (such as IVF) compared to adults conceived naturally. Participants will complete one study visit lasting approximately 3–4 hours. During the visit, participants will complete questionnaires, have basic health measurements taken, and complete non-invasive tests that assess blood pressure, blood vessel function, and circulation. Researchers hope the findings will improve understanding of long-term cardiovascular health in adults conceived through assisted reproductive technology.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is about understanding how subglottic stenosis (narrowing within the airway) affects voice, speech, and breathing sounds. Changes in airflow from airway narrowing can alter how the voice sounds, how speech is timed, and how breaths are taken during speaking. By using advanced, noninvasive sound analysis, we hope to identify patterns that may help detect airway narrowing earlier and track improvement after treatment.

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 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.