Visual Field Defect Homonymous BilateralReViseNetFeedNCT07237412
Neurofeedback-based Visual Restoration Therapy
A study testing neurofeedback in people with Visual Field Defect Homonymous Bilateral, run by Adrian Guggisberg at 2 sites in Switzerland.
Trial summary
Visual field defects are a common consequence of acquired brain injuries and affect people of all ages. These vision problems make everyday life more difficult-for example, when reading, driving, or moving around safely. However, there is currently no effective therapy to improve visual field defects. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 50 to 70 years
- Conditions the study is for
- Visual Field Defect Homonymous Bilateral
- What is being tested?
- neurofeedback
- Type of treatment
- Surgery or procedure
- Could I receive a placebo?
- Yes, some participants may receive a placebo
- How many people
- 14 participants
- Where
- 2 sitesSwitzerland
- Study dates
- 17 Nov 2025to 30 Apr 2028
- 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 50 to 70 years
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Chronic, stable HVFD (homologous lateral quadranopsia or hemianopsia)
- 12 months or more after stroke
- Age range 50-70
- Ability to provide informed consent
Who cannot join
- Inability to concentrate for long treatment sessions
- Eye disease with impact on visual field or acuity
- Presence of non-MRI safe metal in the body
- New stroke during study period
- Hemispatial neglect
Trial locations and contacts
2 sites in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Switzerland2 sites, 2 recruiting
- Recruiting
Inselspital
Bern, Canton of Bern, 3010
Despina Zlatkova, +41764138289, despina.zlatkova@unige.ch
- Not yet recruiting
Division of Neurorehabilitation, University Hospital of Geneva
Geneva, Canton of Geneva, 1202
Adrian Guggisberg, MD, 0795537291, adrian.guggisberg@hug.ch
About this study
Visual field defects are a common consequence of acquired brain injuries and affect people of all ages. These vision problems make everyday life more difficult-for example, when reading, driving, or moving around safely. However, there is currently no effective therapy to improve visual field defects.
Previous training methods have focused on maximizing brain activity during a task. However, new findings show that the best performance is achieved when the brain is already in a state of high communication before the task. Our research shows that people can learn to increase communication between brain regions through neurofeedback.
Studies have shown that neurofeedback can help people after a stroke: it improves the coordination of brain areas that are important for movement, thereby helping to increase mobility. Building on these findings, this study investigates whether EEG neurofeedback can support the visual centers in the brain to improve vision in patients with chronic visual field defects. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of neurofeedback in improving visual field defects. More specifically, the investigators are investigating the development of visual ability (expansion of the visual field, contrast sensitivity).
- Conditions
- Visual Field Defect Homonymous Bilateral
- Being tested
- neurofeedback
- Keywords
- stroke, neurofeedback, network, EEG
- Medical subject headings
- Hemianopsia, Stroke
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
neurofeedbackProcedure or surgery
The proposed neurofeedback approach relies on high-density electroencephalography (EEG) combined with advanced source localization algorithms. Data will be analyzed in real-time and simultaneously recorded for offline analysis. During each update, a data segment will be filtered between 1 and 20 Hz. The beamformer, computed at the beginning of the session, will be used to project the signal to the gray-matter voxels.
The investigators will compute the alpha-band absolute imaginary coherence between a visual target area and the rest of the brain as index of functional connectivity. Global functional connectivity in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) between the voxels in the target region and the rest of the brain will be calculated.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Active phase | Active comparator | During the active phase, patients will receive real-time audio feedback on spontaneous alpha-band functional connectivity between ipsilesional associative visual areas and the rest of the brain. This will allow them to learn to improve their pathological brain interactions. The neurofeedback training will last about 40 minutes, with frequent breaks. It will be followed by visual stimulation of the affected visual field according to recommendations for inducing steady-state visual evoked potentials. Receives: Procedure: neurofeedback |
| control phase | Sham comparator | The control phase is structured identically to the active period, except that the acoustic neurofeedback is synthetically generated and not linked to the subject's actual functional connectivity, while still resembling its dynamic characteristics to ensure effective blinding. The training will last about 40 minutes, with frequent breaks. The training will be followed by visual stimulation of the affected visual field, just as in the active condition. Receives: Procedure: neurofeedback |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Visual field
This will be evaluated using the Haag-Streit Octopus 900 perimetry device (Haag-Streit AG, Köniz, Switzerland). The device features advanced gaze-tracking capabilities that effectively control compensatory eye movements, ensuring accurate measurement of visual field improvements. The Central 30-2 protocol will be followed.
The primary outcome will be the change in the Mean Deviation (MD) score in detection threshold (in dB) from baseline to the end of the intervention period within the target area of affected visual field. The MD score represents the overall deviation of the patient's visual field from age-matched normative data, with more negative values indicating greater visual field loss.
Measured: Change from enrollment to post-test at 3 weeks and follow up at 7 weeks (repeated-measures ANOVA)
Secondary outcomes (3)
Changes in alpha-band functional connecticity
Neurophysiological changes reflected in alpha-band network communication between targeted area and the rest of the brain, as measured with EEG-based FC. For this, the investigators will record resting state EEG, which, together with individual MRI scans and beamforming techniques, will allow us to estimate FC in source space.
Measured: Change from entrollment to the end of treatment at 3 weeks.
Questionnaire on daily-life impact of the visual impairment
Daily-life impact of the visual impairment (visual function questionnaire, VFQ25). It ranges from 0 (worst visual function) to 100 (best visual function)).
Measured: Change from enrollment to treatment end at 3 weeks
Reading speed
Reading speed (International Reading Speed Test, IReST). It is a continuous variable measured in words per minute with no predefined scale range (higher values indicate better performance).
Measured: Change from enrollment to treatment end at 3 weeks and follow up at 7 weeks (repeated-measures ANOVA).
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted19 Nov 2025
- Study start17 Nov 2025
- Primary completion30 Apr 2028 (estimated)
- Study completion30 Apr 2028 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (4)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for Visual Field Defect Homonymous BilateralStudies 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
- Crossover
- Masking
- Double blind
- Who is masked
- Participant, Outcomes assessor
- Enrolment
- 14 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Adrian Guggisberg
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Sponsor-investigator, Adrian Guggisberg, University Hospital, Geneva
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07237412
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 2025-00765
- Other IDs
- 2025
- Acronym
- ReViseNetFeed
- Status last verified
- Apr 2026
- First submitted
- 14 Nov 2025
- Last updated
- 29 Apr 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided
Publications
Sabel BA, Henrich-Noack P, Fedorov A, Gall C. Vision restoration after brain and retina damage: the "residual vision activation theory". Prog Brain Res. 2011;192:199-262. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53355-5.00013-0.
PubMed 21763527Mottaz A, Corbet T, Doganci N, Magnin C, Nicolo P, Schnider A, Guggisberg AG. Modulating functional connectivity after stroke with neurofeedback: Effect on motor deficits in a controlled cross-over study. Neuroimage Clin. 2018 Jul 30;20:336-346. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.07.029. eCollection 2018.
PubMed 30112275Allaman L, Mottaz A, Kleinschmidt A, Guggisberg AG. Spontaneous Network Coupling Enables Efficient Task Performance without Local Task-Induced Activations. J Neurosci. 2020 Dec 9;40(50):9663-9675. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1166-20.2020. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
PubMed 33158966Allaman L, Mottaz A, Guggisberg AG. Disrupted resting-state EEG alpha-band interactions as a novel marker for the severity of visual field deficits after brain lesion. Clin Neurophysiol. 2021 Sep;132(9):2101-2109. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.05.029. Epub 2021 Jun 28.
PubMed 34284245
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 29 Apr 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Neurofeedback-based Visual Restoration Therapy
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07237412
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- ReViseNetFeed / 2025-00765
- Conditions
- Visual Field Defect Homonymous Bilateral
- Keywords
- stroke, neurofeedback, network, EEG
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 14 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Adrian GuggisbergUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 17 Nov 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 30 Apr 2028 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 30 Apr 2028 (estimated)
- First posted
- 19 Nov 2025 (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.
Visual field defects are a common consequence of acquired brain injuries and affect people of all ages. These vision problems make everyday life more difficult-for example, when reading, driving, or moving around safely. However, there is currently no effective therapy to improve visual field defects.
Previous training methods have focused on maximizing brain activity during a task. However, new findings show that the best performance is achieved when the brain is already in a state of high communication before the task. Our research shows that people can learn to increase communication between brain regions through neurofeedback.
Studies have shown that neurofeedback can help people after a stroke: it improves the coordination of brain areas that are important for movement, thereby helping to increase mobility. Building on these findings, this study investigates whether EEG neurofeedback can support the visual centers in the brain to improve vision in patients with chronic visual field defects. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of neurofeedback in improving visual field defects. More specifically, the investigators are investigating the development of visual ability (expansion of the visual field, contrast sensitivity).
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Crossover
- Masking
- Double blind (participant, outcomes assessor)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Active phase | Active comparator | Procedure: neurofeedbackDuring the active phase, patients will receive real-time audio feedback on spontaneous alpha-band functional connectivity between ipsilesional associative visual areas and the rest of the brain. This will allow them to learn to improve their pathological brain interactions. The neurofeedback training will last about 40 minutes, with frequent breaks. It will be followed by visual stimulation of the affected visual field according to recommendations for inducing steady-state visual evoked potentials. |
| control phase | Sham comparator | Procedure: neurofeedbackThe control phase is structured identically to the active period, except that the acoustic neurofeedback is synthetically generated and not linked to the subject's actual functional connectivity, while still resembling its dynamic characteristics to ensure effective blinding. The training will last about 40 minutes, with frequent breaks. The training will be followed by visual stimulation of the affected visual field, just as in the active condition. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 50 to 70 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Chronic, stable HVFD (homologous lateral quadranopsia or hemianopsia)
- 12 months or more after stroke
- Age range 50-70
- Ability to provide informed consent
Key exclusion criteria (5 listed)
- Inability to concentrate for long treatment sessions
- Eye disease with impact on visual field or acuity
- Presence of non-MRI safe metal in the body
- New stroke during study period
- Hemispatial neglect
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 |
|---|---|---|
| neurofeedbackThe proposed neurofeedback approach relies on high-density electroencephalography (EEG) combined with advanced source localization algorithms. Data will be analyzed in real-time and simultaneously recorded for offline analysis. During each update, a data segment will be filtered between 1 and 20 Hz. The beamformer, computed at the beginning of the session, will be used to project the signal to the gray-matter voxels. The investigators will compute the alpha-band absolute imaginary coherence between a visual target area and the rest of the brain as index of functional connectivity. Global functional connectivity in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) between the voxels in the target region and the rest of the brain will be calculated. | Procedure or surgery | Active phase, control phase |
Primary outcome
Visual field
Time frame: Change from enrollment to post-test at 3 weeks and follow up at 7 weeks (repeated-measures ANOVA)
This will be evaluated using the Haag-Streit Octopus 900 perimetry device (Haag-Streit AG, Köniz, Switzerland). The device features advanced gaze-tracking capabilities that effectively control compensatory eye movements, ensuring accurate measurement of visual field improvements. The Central 30-2 protocol will be followed. The primary outcome will be the change in the Mean Deviation (MD) score in detection threshold (in dB) from baseline to the end of the intervention period within the target area of affected visual field. The MD score represents the overall deviation of the patient's visual field from age-matched normative data, with more negative values indicating greater visual field loss.
3 secondary outcomes
Changes in alpha-band functional connecticity
Time frame: Change from entrollment to the end of treatment at 3 weeks.
Questionnaire on daily-life impact of the visual impairment
Time frame: Change from enrollment to treatment end at 3 weeks
Reading speed
Time frame: Change from enrollment to treatment end at 3 weeks and follow up at 7 weeks (repeated-measures ANOVA).
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 29 Apr 2026.
- Background: PubMed 21763527Sabel BA, Henrich-Noack P, Fedorov A, Gall C. Vision restoration after brain and retina damage: the "residual vision activation theory". Prog Brain Res. 2011;192:199-262. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53355-5.00013-0.
- Background: PubMed 30112275Mottaz A, Corbet T, Doganci N, Magnin C, Nicolo P, Schnider A, Guggisberg AG. Modulating functional connectivity after stroke with neurofeedback: Effect on motor deficits in a controlled cross-over study. Neuroimage Clin. 2018 Jul 30;20:336-346. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.07.029. eCollection 2018.
- Background: PubMed 33158966Allaman L, Mottaz A, Kleinschmidt A, Guggisberg AG. Spontaneous Network Coupling Enables Efficient Task Performance without Local Task-Induced Activations. J Neurosci. 2020 Dec 9;40(50):9663-9675. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1166-20.2020. Epub 2020 Nov 6.
- Background: PubMed 34284245Allaman L, Mottaz A, Guggisberg AG. Disrupted resting-state EEG alpha-band interactions as a novel marker for the severity of visual field deficits after brain lesion. Clin Neurophysiol. 2021 Sep;132(9):2101-2109. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2021.05.029. Epub 2021 Jun 28.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided
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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.
2 sites in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing neurofeedback in people with Visual Field Defect Homonymous Bilateral, run by Adrian Guggisberg at 2 sites in Switzerland.
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 4 inclusion and 5 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 29 Apr 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 Switzerland. 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 Adrian Guggisberg, MD (+41795537291, adrian.guggisberg@hug.ch), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Visual field (time frame: Change from enrollment to post-test at 3 weeks and follow up at 7 weeks (repeated-measures ANOVA)). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07237412, which also lists 4 linked publications.
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 29 Apr 2026.