Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) leads to respiratory failure due to chronic hypoventilation. The gold standard for measuring hypoventilationrequires an arterial blood gas, which is impractical in the outpatient setting due to invasiveness, pain, and need for specialized equipment. Recently, the Penn State Health Hershey ALS Clinic has implemented transcutaneous CO2 (TCO2) monitoring as standard of care clinical assessment. The overall goals of this study are to gather critical preliminary data for stakeholder-driven refinement of a TCO2 monitoring protocol within a busy ALS clinic and identify how TCO2 may enhance our understanding of standard respiratory measurements.

Participants will complete a survey related to their experience having their CO2 reading performed in the ALS Clinic.

$20 will be paid for every survey completed, for a maximum possible payment of $80 per person.

The main purpose of this research study is to provide access to the investigational product, CNM-Au8 at a dose of 30mg per day, to up to 300 people living with ALS. The study wants to find out if CNM-Au8 is safe to take without causing too many side effects and can help people with ALS.

Participants will have a visit to see if they qualify to participate. Following this visit, they will return to the clinic for visits every 12 weeks and these visits will continue in 48-week periods until the treatment plan is discontinued. Participants will have one last visit 4 weeks after their last dose of the investigational medicine. 

ALZ-NET will follow and record information about people’s health, safety, brain scans, and long-term health outcomes during their regular memory care.

At specific time points throughout your participation in ALZ-NET, your memory care provider or designated staff will transfer data about your health, diagnosis, treatment, and brain imaging that are related to your memory concerns to the ALZ-NET operations center. These time points include at a 6-month, 12-month, 18-month, and 24-month timepoint, and once per year after that until your participation ends.

This is a single-center feasibility study assessing the Apple Vision Pro as a device for augmentative and alternative communication in patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis who are experiencing impaired communication. Participants in this study will visit the study site once for approximately 1.5 hours. During the session, participants will complete questionnaires about their medical history, undergo an eye exam, and use an augmented reality headset that tracks the motion of the eyes to communicate.

Participants and their caregivers will complete a single visit lasting approximately 1.5 hours. During this time, they will undergo an eye exam, answer a set of questionnaires, and use an augmented reality (AR) headset that tracks eye-gaze to communicate.

$25

This study looks at how people use their eyes and body to interact with moving objects while standing up. Participants will stand at a robotic device and try to stop virtual objects moving at different speeds on a screen, similar to catching or blocking a ball. The research will help us understand how the brain coordinates sensory information to maintain balance.

Participants will be required to stand and interact with virtual objects by grasping a robotic manipulandum. A session will last approximately 120 minutes.

$30 per session

Most individuals with ALS experience changes in speech and swallowing over the course of the disease. In some, these are their initial indication of ALS. Identifying these changes, which may be rapid in some individuals, is complicated by the recent acceleration of virtual care delivery. This is a longitudinal home study of ALS patients to assess speech and swallowing function through use of smartphone application. The overall hypothesis is that this monitoring protocol can be used in a way that, 1) is satisfactory to the patient, 2) performs at least as well as standard clinical measures of dysarthria and dysphagia, and 3) resolves the development of emergence of speech and swallowing pathologies in ALS. Patients enrolling in this study will participate for approximately 24 weeks, during which they will have swallowing and speech tests performed, complete surveys, and perform audio recordings of speech on their cellphone. Healthy controls will be enrolled to judge the intelligibility of speech samples provided by patients in the study.

Patients enrolling in this study will participate for approximately 24 weeks, during which they will have swallowing and speech tests performed, complete surveys, and perform audio recordings of speech on a cellphone.

340

Using micro-RNA in saliva coupled with survey data as a prognostic tool with the ability to guide clinical management of concussions

During their baseline visit participants will complete a saliva swab, surveys, balance test and brief neurocognitive test. Day 7, participants will complete a saliva swab and 2 surveys. Day 30, participants will complete a saliva swab and 4 surveys. The baseline visit is the only in-person visit, day 7 and day 30 are done remotely. All surveys are completed online and day 7 and day 30 saliva swabs are sent home with the participants and sent back in a prepaid mailer on day 30.

$40

The purpose of this study is to collect normative data related to orofacial (lip/tongue) somatosensation (touch sensation) in healthy adults across the adult lifespan. This data will be compared to a select clinical population, those with Parkinson's disease.

There will be one data collection session lasting approximately 90 minutes. Participants may be invited back for a second session approximately 4 weeks later to repeat the testing session During the sessions, participants will answer a series of questions about their eating and drinking preferences, they will be asked to provide a speech sample by repeating a series of syllables, words, and sentences, as well as providing a spontaneous speech sample. All participants will be asked to complete a series of sensory tests where small plastic objects are placed on their lip, tongue, and finger tip. Participants will be asked when they feel the pressure/texture and when they do not.

The purpose of this voluntary research study is to find out more about changes in the brain as we age. This study is trying to determine if magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), genetic variations, amyloid positron emissions tomography (PET), neuropsychological testing, and smell tests can be used to evaluate memory loss and cognitive impairment.

You will be asked to come to the research site once a year for 5 years. Annual (and semi-annual) procedures include completing smell tests, neuropsychological tests, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), interview. One-time procedures include provide blood sample, amyloid PET scan (if indicated), and optional lumbar puncture.

Up to $300 a year

This study will involve elderly humans walking on a treadmill transitioning through prechosen speeds.

There will be one, two hour in person visit. Participants will change into specific lab provided clothing for study and reflective stickers will be placed on participants by the researcher. Participants will then get on the treadmill and will walk at prescribed constant speeds for about 5 minutes total. Then participants will perform 10 speed transition trials each of which lasts about 4 minutes.

$15

The aim of this study is to better understand emotion regulation in infants by measuring brain, behavior, and mother-infant relational mechanisms. We plan to collect simultaneous brain activation in mothers and infants while they engage in a face-to-face interaction. We will then test associations between individual brain activation, mother-infant brain synchrony, and infant emotion regulation behaviors.

Participants complete questionnaires online, then come in for 1 in-person visit. Mother and baby complete a play and a neutral task while fNIRS is collected from them simultaneously.

40

The purpose of this study is to identify changes in salivary micro ribosomal nucleic acid (miRNA) expression that are predictive of symptom duration and severity following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in children. The primary endpoints of this study are as follows: 1) Characterization of brain-related miRNA in the saliva of 250 children with mTBI and 200 age- and gender-matched controls between the ages of five and twenty-three years. 2) Identification of a set of salivary miRNAs that is predictive of duration and severity of mTBI symptoms.

Saliva collection and surveys at baseline, 7 days, and 30 Days

$20

This project focuses on establishing a preliminary evidence base regarding the feasibility and acceptability of using smart speakers to deliver individual cognitive stimulation therapy (iCST) to persons living with dementia (PLwDs)

Fifteen dyads of persons living with dementia and their care partners will be recruited. Participants will engage with an Alexa-based Virtual Assistant (VA), and data will be collected via surveys and Zoom interviews.

$45 per hour

Several easy methods will be used to study how blood vessels change in middle-aged people. These methods include heating a small spot on the arm, using a small TENS unit, using an ultrasound with a blood pressure cuff on the arm, and taking a blood sample.

There will be 2 in-person visits, one will be ~1 hour, the other will be ~2. We will take a blood sample at each visit. The second visit will require you to be seated and resting the entire time.

75

A sample repository for the examination of biomarkers for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and other Motor Neuron Diseases

Participants will be asked to donate blood one or more times and provide age, sex and general history of neurological disease. ALS/motor neuron disease patients will be asked to release information from the medical record about their neurological disorder, strength, function, treatments, known pathogenic ALS-related gene variants, quality of life, and results of breathing tests.

The purpose of this research study is 1.) to determine if Parkinson’s Disease (PD) causes changes in the way that people sense the movements of and forces produced by their bodies, and to connect any of these changes in sensation to changes in the brain, and 2.) to identify how changes in movement might come from different parts of the nervous system. This study will use a combination of electromyography, via electrodes placed on the skin, and finger force recordings to infer how PD affects patients' sense of force production, and the neural mechanisms underlying this change.

Participants will complete a phone screen, then attend one in-person visit at Penn State Health. During the visit, they will perform finger-pressing tasks, have surface electrodes placed on their skin to record muscle activity, complete motor and memory assessments, and fill out questionnaires.

40

How does the brain decide to reach one way or the other? This study will examine how movement decisions are coordinated by neural mechanisms in the brain during manual interception and reaching actions.

Participants will be required to complete a simple virtual interception task with a handle. Participants will be screened and sign informed consent upon entry of the lab. They will then be fitted with EMG sensors and an eye-tracking reference sticker. They will be seated for this task. The task requires a participant to hold their hand steady at the epicenter of a circle, and reach as quickly and accurately as possible to one of 2 moving targets that will appear.

$20

This study will examine the impact of natural and artificial feedback about joint position in a prosthetic driven by muscle activity.

Participants will be asked to come to the lab and contract their upper arm muscles in order to control the movement of a motor driving a virtual prosthetic to reach a set of targets either with feedback about their joint angle or without feedback.

15 dollars

The purpose of this study is to see if an online cycling group for people with aphasia is a feasible way to get people with aphasia to exercise more.

There will be 24 30-minute exercise sessions spread out over 8 weeks (3x per week). Before and after, there will be physical, mental, and cognitive assessments.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) progresses to chronic hypercapnic (excessive carbon dioxide) respiratory failure due to chronic hypoventilation. Transcutaneous carbon dioxide (tCO2) monitoring has the potential to advance home care needs in ALS if the size, complexity, and cost of the sensor can be reduced. The aim of this study is to perform clinical validation of a novel tCO2 sensor in the setting of ALS monitoring. Simultaneous measurements of tCO2 will be performed in ALS clinic using the prototype device alongside a commercial device and standard clinical metrics of respiratory function. A group of control participants will also be recruited. Participants will be queried on technology acceptance related to commercial and experimental devices. The clinical study is designed to test 1) the concurrent validity of the prototype wearable against commercial standard and 2) user opinion about the acceptance of this technology as a device for health monitoring.

The study involves a single visit lasting 1.5 hours. You will undergo two 15-minute recordings of CO2 from sensors placed on the skin. These will occur approximately one hour apart. You will then be asked about your experiences during the recordings in a brief interview.

$20

This study explores how the brain, eyes, and muscles work together when people use their hands to track or catch moving objects. Participants will sit and use their right hand on a tablet to follow a moving virtual ball while wearing non-invasive sensors that record brain waves (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), and eye movements. The goal is to understand how the body prepares for and responds to motion using vision and movement control. The findings may help scientists improve therapies and technologies for people with movement difficulties, such as after a stroke or brain injury.

Participants will attend one in-person session lasting approximately 2 hours. During the session, they will wear an EEG cap, EMG sensors, and an eye tracker while completing a hand-tracking task using their right hand on a tablet.

20

Our overall objective is to recruit a case control study of metabolic profiles. We are hoping to learn more about metabolic profiles for people with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and the changes that occur during disease progression. Study participants will be divided into two cohorts: ALS patients and healthy volunteers. The ALS patients will provide blood samples every 6 months, as long as possible. The healthy volunteers will only provide one blood sample upon enrollment in the study.

ALS patients will: - Review and sign informed consent - Attend a study visit lasting 15-30 minutes every 6 months - Provide blood sample every 6 months - Allow study team to access electronic medical record to collect ongoing clinical data at each study visit Healthy volunteers will: - Review and sign informed consent - Attend a single study visit lasting 15-30 minutes - Provide blood sample at enrollment - Provide height & weight - Provide information about Medcial history & medications as they pertain to diabetes and high cholesterol

This study will test whether playing pickleball, a fun and easy-to-learn paddle sport, can improve physical coordination and reduce core autism symptoms in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants will be placed in either an early start group or a delayed start group using a delayed control trial design. The early start group will attend two 90-minute pickleball classes per week for the first 8 weeks and then resume regular activities for the next 8 weeks. The delayed start group will continue regular activities for the first 8 weeks and then transition into the pickleball classes for 8 weeks. All participants will complete pickleball skill assessments at their first and last class to measure improvement, and three testing sessions during the study will assess sensory-motor processing, autism symptoms, mental health, and quality of life. By comparing the two groups, this study aims to determine whether pickleball supports better physical and emotional health for autistic adults and whether it can help participants feel more confident, connected, and engaged in social settings.

Participants will attend two or three in-person testing sessions (baseline, mid-study, and post-study) where they will complete surveys and a videogame-based sensory-motor assessment. They will also participate in two 90-minute coach-led pickleball classes per week for 8 weeks. Pickleball skill assessments will be completed during their first and last pickleball class.

$100

The present study will examine the role of different input conditions on the learning of words and morphosyntactic units in a new language. We specifically aim to examine the effects of variables researched in the field: type of knowledge (explicitly stated via pre-training, or incidental; Pellicer-Sánchez et al., 2021), salience (manipulated via input properties; Ellis & Sagarra, 2010) and modality (visual or auditory; Borro, 2021) play on learning outcomes. Our goal is to examine how cognitive processes underlying learning are affected by our manipulations, and the impact on learning outcomes. We hypothesize that pre-training will enhance speakers' ability to detect target vocabulary and structures to be learned. While the literature is mixed on the role of salience, across the experiments described below, we will explore the impact of low-level salience (e.g., text enhanced visually) and psychological salience (the amount of repetition / expectedness of a target items. We will also investigate the less investigated effect of modality.

This is a language learning study. There will be up to two visits to the research lab. Sessions will consist of simple tasks consisting of readings sentences, remembering words, and completing memory tasks. EEG data will be collected via a wearable EEG cap; eye-tracking data will be collected while reading and completing some of the tasks are on a computer.

18 / hour

This is a usability study that will evaluate how allied health, education and technology professionals perceive a new virtual therapy environment designed for children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants will experience a guided session using a virtual reality headset. Some participants will experience the VR session with an additional wearable vest that provides gentle vibration feedback, while others will use the VR system without the vest. Assignment to these conditions will be random. After the VR session, participants will complete questionnaires about usability, immersion, and any discomfort. The goal is to improve the tool before it is used in clinical settings.

There will be only one on-site meeting with one hour of duration. Participants will take part in an 25 minutes immersive experience in a virtual environment (with or without a wearable vibration vest, depending on random assignment); and complete one questionnaire before, and four questionnaires after the experience.

$30 Amazon gift card

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of lifetime self-report physical activity behavior on current cognitive and mental health status in populations of different ages through the lifespan. We will use a digital survey to obtain physical activity behavior reports, including intensity, duration, and physical activity type during several periods of each participant's life, and utilize online cognitive tests and mental health questionnaires to obtain current mental health and cognitive capacity.

Participants will complete an anonymous online survey that asks about their physical activity trends across their lifetime and their current mental health status. The survey will also direct the participants to several brief online cognitive tests. The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. Participants who complete the survey will have the opportunity to fill out a separate form to be entered (via email address) into a drawing to win a $100 prize.

$100 compensation drawing entry

This study explores whether simple digital activities, such as watching short videos and answering easy questions, can help researchers understand early changes in memory, attention, and language. Participants will complete these tasks on a tablet, computer, or smartphone, either independently or with support. The study does not diagnose any condition. The goal is to learn whether everyday digital behaviors can provide early, low burden signals of cognitive change in older adults.

Participants will watch short and long videos on a tablet, computer, or smartphone and answer simple multiple-choice and short-answer questions about each video. They may also provide brief written or spoken explanations. The session takes about 20 to 40 minutes and can be completed independently or with researcher support. An optional second session may be completed after two to six weeks.

The main purpose of this clinical trial is to determine whether early non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in individuals diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is feasible and is associated with improved quality of life, symptoms, and carbon dioxide levels compared to usual care. Study subjects assigned to the “early NIV” group will start NIV earlier than subjects in the usual care group. The study population will included a total of 48 adults diagnosed with ALS at three Neurology ALS clinics in the United States. Subjects will participate in a total of 5 study visits over a 12-month period.

Once eligible, enrolled subjects are assigned to a group (early NIV or usual care), they will attend a total of 5 in person study visits at the ALS clinic over a 12-month period. At Visit 1, subjects will complete questionnaires and assessments and receive the initial study intervention. Follow-up visits at the ALS clinic will take place every 3 months (Visit 2/Month 3; Visit 3/Month 6; Visit 4/Month 9; Visit 5/Month 12) with the completion of questionnaires and assessments plus review of NIV data as applicable.

Endometriosis is a common condition that can sometimes affect the nerves and may also impact heart and blood‑vessel health. In this study, we will use routine medical tests that show how the nervous system and cardiovascular system work together. Women with and without endometriosis will go through standard tilt testing - laying still on a table while the head of the table is tilted upward. Blood pressure and heart rate are measured. Participants then wear a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours.

Participants will go through standard tilt testing (laying down on a table that is tilted head up) and 24-hour blood pressure monitoring (wearing a portable blood pressure monitor while going about their day for one day).

100

NUZ-001 ((S)-monepantel) is a synthetic drug that aims to stimulate a natural cleaning mechanism called autophagy that removes the build-up of waste products in cells. In patients with ALS, autophagy can be impaired, leading to the toxic build-up of waste products, causing the motor neuron to die.

If you qualify for this regimen, you will be randomly assigned to take either active study drug or placebo. This is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. This means that participants are selected by chance (like tossing a coin) to be in 1 of 2 groups – this is called “randomization.” “Double-blind” means that neither you, the study doctor, nor any of the study staff will know whether you are receiving active drug or placebo. However, your study doctor can find out in case of an emergency. The placebo looks and feels exactly like the study drug but contains no active drug.

$700