Macular DegenerationNCT04762368
Learning Study: Improving Vision in Adults With Macular Degeneration
A study testing Active anodal tDCS in people with Macular Degeneration, run by University of Waterloo at 2 sites in 2 countries.
Trial summary
The purpose of this study is to test whether a kind of brain stimulation called anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) can be combined with perceptual learning to improve the ability of people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or juvenile macular degeneration (JMD) to read words presented to… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Macular Degeneration
- What is being tested?
- Active anodal tDCS
- Type of treatment
- Medical device
- Could I receive a placebo?
- Yes, some participants may receive a placebo
- How many people
- 30 participants
- Where
- 2 sitesin 2 countries
- Study dates
- 13 Feb 2021to Dec 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Diagnosis of AMD (age 60+) or JMD (current age 18+).
- Visual acuity (VA); between 6/9-6/96 in the better eye
- Best-corrected near visual acuity of 4.0M at 40 cm or better in the better eye
- Stable vision in previous 3 months (patient report)
- Central vision loss
Who cannot join
- Diagnosed dementia.
- Not fluent in reading English (Waterloo) or Chinese characters (Hong Kong).
- Any ocular surgery (including anti-vegF injections) within the duration of the study, except for: A. Chronic and continuous injections for at least 1 year. B. Injections stopped at least 2 months before participation. C. Injections in the untested eye
- Ocular pathology other than JMD or AMD that can significantly reduce central vision. Example: mild cataract of grade 2 or below is acceptable
- Severe hearing impairment.
- Contraindications for brain stimulation
Trial locations and contacts
2 sites in 2 countries. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Andrew E Silva, PhD contact
2 sites in 2 countries
Canada1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1
Andrew E Silva, PhD, a8silva@uwaterloo.ca
Hong Kong1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hung Hom, Kowloon
Allen Cheong, PhD, allen.my.cheong@polyu.edu.hk
About this study
Official title: Improving Vision in Adults With Macular Degeneration, Study 2: The Effect of Concurrent Perceptual Learning and Brain Stimulation
The purpose of this study is to test whether a kind of brain stimulation called anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) can be combined with perceptual learning to improve the ability of people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or juvenile macular degeneration (JMD) to read words presented to them on a computer screen better than if perceptual learning alone were used.
In addition, secondary measures of visual acuity will also be examined to determine whether brain stimulation can allow patients to resolve finer details of an image. The proposed treatment is the application of a-tDCS onto the participant's head, with brain stimulation aimed at Primary Visual Cortex toward the occipital pole, while patients undergo six separate sessions of training. The investigators will test the ability of participants to read words before the start of the training sessions (pre test) and after the completion of all training sessions (post test). This is a between-subjects design, and half of the participants will receive true stimulation, and the other half will receive sham stimulation. The difference between the pre and post tests when receiving active stimulation will be compared to the difference when receiving sham stimulation, because the sham stimulation is not expected to influence reading beyond a placebo. The aim of the study is to examine the potential of concurrent brain stimulation and perceptual learning as an effective treatment for macular degeneration that may be used in conjunction with more traditional eye-based interventions. The investigators hypothesize that the brain stimulation will enable higher performance in the reading task after and secondary measures after perceptual training due to an increase in the cortical excitability of the stimulated brain cells.
Read the detailed description
This study will be carried out in Ontario, Canada (University of Waterloo) and Hong Kong (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University). There are two conditions: Active brain stimulation + perceptual training and sham/placebo brain stimulation + perceptual training. This study uses a between-subjects design, such that half of all participants will be placed in the active stimulation group and half will be placed in the sham group.
Participants will be recruited from university-affiliated clinics and local clinical practices. Following full informed consent, participants will complete baseline testing and clinical testing to confirm that they meet eligibility criteria including: a diagnosis of macular degeneration without any additional eye disease, impaired vision but with enough visual acuity that the computer monitor can still present readable word, and no contraindications for brain stimulation interventions. Eligible participants will then be randomized to either receiving the active stimulation during perceptual training or the placebo stimulation during perceptual training.
The primary outcome measure is verbal reading accuracy for sentences presented on a computer screen following a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task in which a single word is presented on the screen at a time. Participants will freely observe the words and will indicate the words on the screen verbally. The secondary outcome measures are contrast sensitivity and crowded and uncrowded visual acuity as measured by Freiburg Visual Acuity \& Contrast Test (FrACT) using the Landolt C stimulus. The "C"'s gap will be oriented randomly, and the participant will indicate the orientation of the stimulus. Crowded visual acuity will be assessed with Landolt C surrounded by a solid ring, while uncrowded visual acuity will be assessed with the Landolt C alone. The Test of contrast sensitivity will measure the amount of contrast required relative to the background to identify the orientation of the "C". The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has an additional set of secondary outcome measures of temporal and spatial visual span. Temporal visual span will be assessed using Chinese trigrams presented horizontally or vertically at the centre for a range of presentation times. Spatial visual span will be assessed using Chinese trigrams presented horizontally or vertically at different character positions for a fixed presentation time. Participants will be asked to recognize all three characters in a correct order.
The study consists of 9 sessions plus 1 additional session particularly for Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Session 0: This session only applies for The Hong Kong Polytechnic university, that horizontal and vertical temporal and spatial visual span will be collected.
Session 1: The first session will include the clinical evaluation. In addition, the pre tests of all outcome measures will be collected (RSVP performance, crowded and uncrowded visual acuity, contrast sensitivity).
Sessions 2-7: Brain stimulation sessions. Participants will undergo roughly 1 hour of perceptual training, performing the RSVP task. The first 25 minutes of this training will include either sham or active brain stimulation. A given participant will receive the same kind of stimulation for all 6 training sessions.
Session 8: No brain stimulation will occur. Post test outcome measures will be collected (RSVP performance, crowded and uncrowded visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, horizontal and vertical temporal and spatial visual span).
Session 9: 30 day follow up. 30 days after the final training session, participants will again perform the outcome measures without brain stimulation to determine the long term benefit of the perceptual training + brain stimulation.
- Conditions
- Macular Degeneration
- Being tested
- Active anodal tDCS, Sham anodal tDCS
- Keywords
- Macular Degeneration, Brain Stimulation, Psychophysics, Reading, tDCS, RSVP, Visual Acuity, Uncrowded Visual Acuity, Crowded Visual Acuity, Contrast Sensitivity
- Medical subject headings
- Macular Degeneration
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Active anodal tDCSDevice
a weak electric current is applied to the head through electrodes to affect the cortical excitability of the targeted cells in the brain.
Sham anodal tDCSDevice
The tDCS machine will be used as in active stimulation, except the electrical current will not be applied.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Active + Training | Active comparator | Participants in this arm will be exposed to active stimulation for the first 25 minutes of a roughly hour - long perceptual training procedure in which participants must verbally read sentences presented at various speeds and sizes. Receives: Device: Active anodal tDCS |
| Sham + Training | Sham comparator | Participants in this arm will be exposed to sham stimulation for the first 25 minutes of a roughly hour - long perceptual training procedure in which participants must verbally read sentences presented at various speeds and sizes. Receives: Device: Sham anodal tDCS |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Change in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) Reading performance before and right after training.
Behavioral Measure - Participants will verbally read words presented on a computer. A variety of speeds and sizes will be presented, so that an accurate measure of the maximum reading speed, and the smallest text size readable at the maximum reading speed can be calculated. The maximum reading speed and smallest text size will be measured before and after training. The outcome measures are the change in these reading measurements from pre test to post test.
Measured: The pre test and post test will take roughly 1 hour to complete, and they will be roughly 4-7 weeks apart.
Change in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) Reading performance 30 days after training
Behavioral Measure - Participants will verbally read words presented on a computer. A variety of speeds and sizes will be presented, so that an accurate measure of the maximum reading speed, and the smallest text size readable at the maximum reading speed can be calculated. The maximum reading speed and smallest text size will be measured before and after training. The outcome measures are the change in these reading measurements from pre test to the 30 day follow up.
Measured: The test will take roughly 1 hour to complete, and they will be roughly 7-10 weeks apart.
Secondary outcomes (8)
Change in Uncrowded Visual Acuity before and just after training
Visual acuity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to the post test
Measured: The pre test and post test will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4-7 weeks apart.
Change in Uncrowded Visual Acuity before and 30 days after training
Visual acuity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to the 30 day follow up.
Measured: The pre test and post test will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7 to 10 weeks apart.
Change in Crowded Visual Acuity before and just after training
Visual acuity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Crowded (Ring) Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to post test.
Measured: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4 - 7 weeks apart.
Change in Crowded Visual Acuity before and 30 days after training
Visual acuity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Crowded (Ring) Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to the 30 day follow up.
Measured: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7 - 10 weeks apart.
Change in Contrast Sensitivity before and just after training
Contrast sensitivity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to the post test.
Measured: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4 - 7 weeks apart.
Change in Contrast Sensitivity before and 30 days after training
Contrast sensitivity as measured by participants indicating the orientation of the gap present in a Landolt C stimulus using the freely available FrACT software https://michaelbach.de/fract/index.html . The outcome measure is the change in performance from pre test to the 30 day follow up.
Measured: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7-10 weeks apart.
Change in Temporal Visual Span before and just after training
Three unrelated Chinese characters will appear at the centre of a monitor for a range of exposure times. Participants will be asked to recognize all three characters in a correct order. Both horizontal and vertical presentation will be assessed. The outcome measures are the changes in time for recognizing the characters from pre test to the post test.
Measured: The test will take roughly 1.5 hours to complete, and they will be roughly 5-8 weeks apart
Change in Spatial Visual Span before and just after training
Three unrelated Chinese character will appear at different character positions for a fixed exposure time, while participants will be asked to keep fixation at the centre but recognize all three characters in a correct order. Both horizontal and vertical presentation will be assessed. The outcome measures are the changes in the size of the spatial visual span from pre test to the post.
Measured: The test will take roughly 1.5 hours to complete, and they will be roughly 5-8 weeks apart.
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted21 Feb 2021
- Study start13 Feb 2021
- Primary completionDec 2026 (estimated)
- Study completionDec 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Macular DegenerationStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Model description
- Group A: 6 training sessions with active brain stimulation and perceptual training Group B: 6 training sessions with sham brain stimulation and perceptual training
- Masking
- Double blind
- Who is masked
- Participant, Investigator
- Enrolment
- 30 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Waterloo
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Ben Thompson, University of Waterloo
- Investigators
- Ben Thompson, PhD, Principal investigator, University of Waterloo
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04762368
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- VSBrainStim2
- Status last verified
- May 2025
- First submitted
- 13 Feb 2021
- Last updated
- 22 Jan 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: IDP that underlie results in a publication will be available after deidentification upon reasonable request to the research team.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 22 Jan 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Improving Vision in Adults With Macular Degeneration, Study 2: The Effect of Concurrent Perceptual Learning and Brain Stimulation
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT04762368
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- VSBrainStim2
- Conditions
- Macular Degeneration
- Keywords
- Macular Degeneration, Brain Stimulation, Psychophysics, Reading, tDCS, RSVP, Visual Acuity, Uncrowded Visual Acuity
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 30 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- University of WaterlooUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
- Study start
- 13 Feb 2021 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Dec 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Dec 2026 (estimated)
- First posted
- 21 Feb 2021 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The purpose of this study is to test whether a kind of brain stimulation called anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) can be combined with perceptual learning to improve the ability of people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or juvenile macular degeneration (JMD) to read words presented to them on a computer screen better than if perceptual learning alone were used.
In addition, secondary measures of visual acuity will also be examined to determine whether brain stimulation can allow patients to resolve finer details of an image. The proposed treatment is the application of a-tDCS onto the participant's head, with brain stimulation aimed at Primary Visual Cortex toward the occipital pole, while patients undergo six separate sessions of training. The investigators will test the ability of participants to read words before the start of the training sessions (pre test) and after the completion of all training sessions (post test). This is a between-subjects design, and half of the participants will receive true stimulation, and the other half will receive sham stimulation. The difference between the pre and post tests when receiving active stimulation will be compared to the difference when receiving sham stimulation, because the sham stimulation is not expected to influence reading beyond a placebo. The aim of the study is to examine the potential of concurrent brain stimulation and perceptual learning as an effective treatment for macular degeneration that may be used in conjunction with more traditional eye-based interventions. The investigators hypothesize that the brain stimulation will enable higher performance in the reading task after and secondary measures after perceptual training due to an increase in the cortical excitability of the stimulated brain cells.
Detailed description
This study will be carried out in Ontario, Canada (University of Waterloo) and Hong Kong (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University). There are two conditions: Active brain stimulation + perceptual training and sham/placebo brain stimulation + perceptual training. This study uses a between-subjects design, such that half of all participants will be placed in the active stimulation group and half will be placed in the sham group.
Participants will be recruited from university-affiliated clinics and local clinical practices. Following full informed consent, participants will complete baseline testing and clinical testing to confirm that they meet eligibility criteria including: a diagnosis of macular degeneration without any additional eye disease, impaired vision but with enough visual acuity that the computer monitor can still present readable word, and no contraindications for brain stimulation interventions. Eligible participants will then be randomized to either receiving the active stimulation during perceptual training or the placebo stimulation during perceptual training.
The primary outcome measure is verbal reading accuracy for sentences presented on a computer screen following a Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) task in which a single word is presented on the screen at a time. Participants will freely observe the words and will indicate the words on the screen verbally. The secondary outcome measures are contrast sensitivity and crowded and uncrowded visual acuity as measured by Freiburg Visual Acuity \& Contrast Test (FrACT) using the Landolt C stimulus. The "C"'s gap will be oriented randomly, and the participant will indicate the orientation of the stimulus. Crowded visual acuity will be assessed with Landolt C surrounded by a solid ring, while uncrowded visual acuity will be assessed with the Landolt C alone. The Test of contrast sensitivity will measure the amount of contrast required relative to the background to identify the orientation of the "C". The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has an additional set of secondary outcome measures of temporal and spatial visual span. Temporal visual span will be assessed using Chinese trigrams presented horizontally or vertically at the centre for a range of presentation times. Spatial visual span will be assessed using Chinese trigrams presented horizontally or vertically at different character positions for a fixed presentation time. Participants will be asked to recognize all three characters in a correct order.
The study consists of 9 sessions plus 1 additional session particularly for Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Session 0: This session only applies for The Hong Kong Polytechnic university, that horizontal and vertical temporal and spatial visual span will be collected.
Session 1: The first session will include the clinical evaluation. In addition, the pre tests of all outcome measures will be collected (RSVP performance, crowded and uncrowded visual acuity, contrast sensitivity).
Sessions 2-7: Brain stimulation sessions. Participants will undergo roughly 1 hour of perceptual training, performing the RSVP task. The first 25 minutes of this training will include either sham or active brain stimulation. A given participant will receive the same kind of stimulation for all 6 training sessions.
Session 8: No brain stimulation will occur. Post test outcome measures will be collected (RSVP performance, crowded and uncrowded visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, horizontal and vertical temporal and spatial visual span).
Session 9: 30 day follow up. 30 days after the final training session, participants will again perform the outcome measures without brain stimulation to determine the long term benefit of the perceptual training + brain stimulation.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Double blind (participant, investigator)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Group A: 6 training sessions with active brain stimulation and perceptual training Group B: 6 training sessions with sham brain stimulation and perceptual training
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Active + Training | Active comparator | Device: Active anodal tDCSParticipants in this arm will be exposed to active stimulation for the first 25 minutes of a roughly hour - long perceptual training procedure in which participants must verbally read sentences presented at various speeds and sizes. |
| Sham + Training | Sham comparator | Device: Sham anodal tDCSParticipants in this arm will be exposed to sham stimulation for the first 25 minutes of a roughly hour - long perceptual training procedure in which participants must verbally read sentences presented at various speeds and sizes. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Diagnosis of AMD (age 60+) or JMD (current age 18+).
- Visual acuity (VA); between 6/9-6/96 in the better eye
- Best-corrected near visual acuity of 4.0M at 40 cm or better in the better eye
- Stable vision in previous 3 months (patient report)
- Central vision loss
Key exclusion criteria (6 listed)
- Diagnosed dementia.
- Not fluent in reading English (Waterloo) or Chinese characters (Hong Kong).
- Any ocular surgery (including anti-vegF injections) within the duration of the study, except for: A. Chronic and continuous injections for at least 1 year. B. Injections stopped at least 2 months before participation. C. Injections in the untested eye
- Ocular pathology other than JMD or AMD that can significantly reduce central vision. Example: mild cataract of grade 2 or below is acceptable
- Severe hearing impairment.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Active anodal tDCSa weak electric current is applied to the head through electrodes to affect the cortical excitability of the targeted cells in the brain. | Device | Active + Training |
| Sham anodal tDCSThe tDCS machine will be used as in active stimulation, except the electrical current will not be applied. | Device | Sham + Training |
Primary outcome
Change in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) Reading performance before and right after training.
Time frame: The pre test and post test will take roughly 1 hour to complete, and they will be roughly 4-7 weeks apart.
Behavioral Measure - Participants will verbally read words presented on a computer. A variety of speeds and sizes will be presented, so that an accurate measure of the maximum reading speed, and the smallest text size readable at the maximum reading speed can be calculated. The maximum reading speed and smallest text size will be measured before and after training. The outcome measures are the change in these reading measurements from pre test to post test.
Change in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) Reading performance 30 days after training
Time frame: The test will take roughly 1 hour to complete, and they will be roughly 7-10 weeks apart.
Behavioral Measure - Participants will verbally read words presented on a computer. A variety of speeds and sizes will be presented, so that an accurate measure of the maximum reading speed, and the smallest text size readable at the maximum reading speed can be calculated. The maximum reading speed and smallest text size will be measured before and after training. The outcome measures are the change in these reading measurements from pre test to the 30 day follow up.
8 secondary outcomes
Change in Uncrowded Visual Acuity before and just after training
Time frame: The pre test and post test will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4-7 weeks apart.
Change in Uncrowded Visual Acuity before and 30 days after training
Time frame: The pre test and post test will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7 to 10 weeks apart.
Change in Crowded Visual Acuity before and just after training
Time frame: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4 - 7 weeks apart.
Change in Crowded Visual Acuity before and 30 days after training
Time frame: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7 - 10 weeks apart.
Change in Contrast Sensitivity before and just after training
Time frame: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 4 - 7 weeks apart.
Change in Contrast Sensitivity before and 30 days after training
Time frame: The tests will take roughly 5 minutes to complete, and they will be roughly 7-10 weeks apart.
Change in Temporal Visual Span before and just after training
Time frame: The test will take roughly 1.5 hours to complete, and they will be roughly 5-8 weeks apart
Change in Spatial Visual Span before and just after training
Time frame: The test will take roughly 1.5 hours to complete, and they will be roughly 5-8 weeks apart.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 22 Jan 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. IDP that underlie results in a publication will be available after deidentification upon reasonable request to the research team.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Andrew E Silva, PhD contact
Ben Thompson, PhD principal investigator
University of Waterloo
2 sites in 2 countries: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Active anodal tDCS in people with Macular Degeneration, run by University of Waterloo at 2 sites in 2 countries.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 6 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 22 Jan 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 2 sites in Canada, Hong Kong. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. Some participants in this study may receive a placebo. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Ben Thompson, PhD (15198884567 ext. 39398, ben.thompson@uwaterloo.ca), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Change in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) Reading performance before and right after training. (time frame: The pre test and post test will take roughly 1 hour to complete, and they will be roughly 4-7 weeks apart.). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 22 Jan 2026.