View clinical trials related to Aphasia.
Filter by:The long-term goal of this work is to determine if combining a highly intensive, task-specific behavioral language intervention with modulation of the efferent cerebellar-cortical pathway using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has a positive influence on discourse, verbal fluency and working memory in individuals with non-fluent aphasia after stroke. And if these changes can be related to neuroplastic change in the cerebellar cortical pathway indirectly measured through neurophysiologic changes using spectral electroencephalogram (EEG). The initial phase includes the proposed pilot study data from which will be used to inform a larger clinical trial. The primary aims of this pilot are to 1) determine the effect of combining cerebellar tDCS with constraint-induced language therapy (CILT) on language as measured by a verbal fluency task and discourse task in a small population and 2) identify the tolerance of the intervention and barriers to participation measured by the adverse events questionnaire that will inform the methodology of a larger study. The secondary aims include estimating the size of the treatment effect on 1) delta percentage in F3, F7 and Fp1 compared to F4, F8, and Fp2 using resting state EEG spectral analysis and coherence, 2) working memory as measured by the score on the n-back test and 3) quality of life as measured by the Stroke Aphasia Quality of Life survey tool. The secondary aims will be used to determine the utility of these measures in a larger clinical trial. This is a prospective, crossover study, sham-controlled intervention study with two intervention conditions delivered across 6 intervention sessions (3x/week for two weeks) with a 4-week washout in between. Conditions include: 1) sham cerebellar tDCS and 2) real cerebellar tDCS delivered at 2mA across 20 minutes. Each of these will be delivered during CILT intervention with a licensed, certified speech-language pathologist trained in CILT. Once tDCS stimulation has ended, CILT will continue to be delivered for an additional 25 minutes. Assessments of discourse, verbal fluency, working memory and EEG spectral analysis will be conducted at four timepoints, before and after each intervention phase.
The diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders such as early Alzheimer's disease (AD) or primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is particularly difficult and constantly evolving, often leading to diagnostic erraticity. However, several studies have shown that graphic parameters are affected in people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease. The use of new technologies in the study and analysis of the abilities of people with neurodegenerative diseases is increasingly recommended. The use of a digital tablet with a stylus makes it possible to objectivize the kinematic parameters of writing (pressure, inclination, speed, jerk, time of writing task) and thus would allow a low-cost diffusion of this technology in particular by including it in already existing screening batteries. The overall objective of the project is to characterize and compare the graphical markers of a writing task, either language-based (writing words, non-words, sentences) or non-language-based (drawing shapes), in patients with PPA, early-stage Alzheimer's disease (i.e., at the stage of minor neurocognitive disorders and major neurocognitive disorders at the beginning of the disease), and in people with no cognitive disorders.
This is a feasibility study on the effects of an online-based training and education programme for carers of people with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
There are two opposing hypotheses, namely the interference and laterality-shift hypotheses, regarding the role of the right hemisphere (RH) in language recovery following a left hemisphere damage. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has received increasing attention as a potential complement to behavioural therapy. This preliminary study aimed to examine the effect of excitatory (anodal) stimulation of right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) on naming abilities of chronic people with aphasia (PWA) to examine the compensatory versus interference role of RH in language recovery, and to confirm the application of tDCS does not induce adverse effects on other cognitive and language functions.
The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of an online exercise program for community-dwelling individuals with aphasia, a language disorder resulting from brain damage. Physical activity, language, cognitive, and quality of life outcomes will be collected to assess potential effectiveness.
People with post-stroke aphasia (PWA) suffer from anomia, a condition where they know what they want to say but cannot retrieve the words. For PWA, word retrieval changes moment-to-moment, leading to diminished motivation to participate in conversations and disengagement from social interactions. In the real world, anomia variability and severity are compounded by contextual factors of communication exchanges (noise, dual-tasking). Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) involves in-situ measurement of a behavior over time during everyday life. EMA has promise for capturing real-world anomia, yet EMA methods have not been tested in PWA. Therefore, the aims of this pilot study are to (1) determine the relative feasibility of two types of smartwatch-delivered EMA (traditional-EMA and micro-EMA) in PWA and (2) determine the extent to which patient-specific factors relate to feasibility. Twenty PWA will be recruited and randomly assigned to either traditional-EMA or micro-EMA conditions. To target in-situ anomia, PWA will complete 36 picture-naming trials/day for three weeks, delivered either as a single trial 36 times per day (micro-EMA) or in four sets of nine trials/set per day (traditional-EMA). Due to the "at-a-glance" single trial delivery of micro-EMA, the investigators hypothesize that PWA in the micro-EMA condition will demonstrate better protocol adherence than PWA in the traditional-EMA condition. Older age, more severe cognitive-linguistic deficits, and greater discomfort with technology will be related to poorer compliance, lower completion, greater perceived burden, and lower intelligibility of naming audio recordings. This bench-to-bedside research will begin a translational path to implement EMA/micro-EMA into routine assessment of aphasia.
This study incorporates metacognitive strategy training into semantic feature analysis treatment. Semantic feature analysis treatment has a strong evidence base and capacity to improve word retrieval by encouraging circumlocution. Circumlocution facilitates self-cued naming and assists listener comprehension when naming fails. However, semantic feature analysis treatment does not include direct techniques to teach patients with aphasia to generalize the use of semantic feature analysis treatment's circumlocution procedure. Therefore, this study proposes that combining semantic feature analysis treatment and metacognitive strategy training will stimulate the semantic system and increase patients with aphasias' use of circumlocution across divergent contexts. This study aims to measure the treatment's effect on naming accuracy for trained and untrained items. The study also aim to measure the treatment's effect on people with aphasias' knowledge of the strategy components and changes in verbalizations during retrieval attempts. The central hypothesis is that strategy training will increase patients with aphasias' explicit knowledge about circumlocution and enable them to use it to (1) self-facilitate naming, and (2) produce more informative connected speech.
The purpose of this study is the development and validation of an evidence-based mobile application, based on the core premises of Intensive Language-Action Therapy (ILAT) for aphasia, for the training and improvement of chronic aphasia patients administered at the patient's home. It aims at testing the beneficial effect on the linguistic performance (as assessed by the Barcelona and CAL clinical tests) counteracting learned non-use and the usability of the application as a tool for training once discharged from hospital care.
The observational study aims to investigate the effect of two factors that influence the ease with which aphasic and healthy participants name visual stimuli. The main factors investigated here are the image type of the visual stimulus (drawing or photographic image) and the response variety (standard language vs dialect). The hypothesis is formulated as follows: The image type of the visual stimulus (drawing or photographic image) and the response variety (standard language or dialect) will have an effect on naming correctness and/or naming latencies in people with aphasia within the picture naming test. The experiment was as follows: Persons with aphasia and healthy participants were presented with objects and verbs depicted as photographs or illustrations on a tablet. All participants were asked to name the depicted term in two different language varieties as correctly and as fast as possible. Answers were recorded synchronously. No feedback should be given to the participants (=no therapy). The results of picture naming were not analyzed patient-specifically in relation to their condition or therapy. Naming performance was collected as a momentary data set in order to investigate the speed of naming in general. The ethic committee Northwestern and Central Switzerland approved the study to be observational as no effect of intervention(s) on biomedical or other health related outcomes were evaluated, but only the influence of type of the visual stimulus and the response variety on correctness and naming latencies in the two participant groups.
Aphasia is an impairment in the expression or comprehension of language that results from stroke, traumatic brain injury or progressive neurological disease. Approximately two million people in the United States suffer from aphasia, which has profound impacts on quality of life, the ability to return to work and participation in life activities. Research has shown that speech-language therapy, the treatment for aphasia, can significantly improve people's ability to communicate. However, a major limitation in the field of aphasia rehabilitation is the lack of predictability in patients' response to therapy and the inability to tailor treatment to individuals. Currently, aphasia treatments are selected largely based on patient's language abilities and language deficits with little consideration of learning ability, which this study refers to as learning phenotype. Learning phenotype has been used to inform rehabilitation approaches in other domains but is not currently considered in aphasia. The overarching hypothesis of this work is that poor alignment of learning ability and language therapy limits progress for patients and presents a barrier to individualizing treatment. The objectives of the proposed study are to (1) determine the learning phenotype of individuals with aphasia, and (2) examine how lesion characteristics (size and location of damage to the brain), language ability and cognitive ability relate to learning ability. To accomplish objectives, investigators propose to measure implicit (observational) and explicit (rule-based) learning ability in people with aphasia via computer-based tasks. Regression models will be used to examine brain and behavioral factors that relate to learning ability.