Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers

Dementia Clinical Trial

Official title:

Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Suspended

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04221386
• Other study ID #: IZZKJ
• Status: Suspended
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 1, 2020
• Est. completion date: February 28, 2021

Study information

• Verified date: December 2019
• Source: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

One of the traditional therapies for restoring the ability of speech in aphasic patients is Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), in which everyday phrases are taught in a singing-like manner. The suggested mechanism for speech recovery is that because of the sharing of brain resources for language and music, the regions normally reserved for singing can be trained to help compensate the speech functions originally subserved by the damaged regions. However, this therapy has primarily been applied to speakers of non-tone languages, in which prosodic features carry a more important role than pitch features in conveying meanings. It remains unknown whether MIT will be equally applicable for speakers of tone languages, in which pitch features likely play a more important role. Another uncertainty concerns whether the efficacy of MIT can be extended to patients with expressive speech impairment due to dementia. This pilot study aims to find out the efficacy of MIT for speech-impaired dementia patients in different verbal tasks. The results of this study will provide preliminary empirical evidence to establish the utility of MIT for Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Suspended
• Enrollment: 40
• Est. completion date: February 28, 2021
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 50 Years to 100 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Early to moderate stage dementia patient

• Normal hearing (hearing aid accepted)

• Non-fluent speech (max. score of fluency in Cantonese Aphasia Battery spontaneous speech subtest = 6/10)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non-native Cantonese speaker

• Illiterate

• Aphasic patients

• Subjects who receive other speech therapy during study

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Communication Disorders
• Dementia
• Speech Therapy

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)
Subjects will receive at least 6 MIT sessions in group of 3-5 subjects. In the sessions, experimenter will sing songs with the subjects. Songs used in the intervention are familiar to elderly and are rewritten and embedded with everyday phrases and vocabularies. The whole intervention will span 3-4 weeks.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Hong Kong	Elderly homes	Hong Kong

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Hong Kong, 

References & Publications (3)

Albert ML, Sparks RW, Helm NA. Melodic intonation therapy for aphasia. Arch Neurol. 1973 Aug;29(2):130-1. — View Citation

Särkämö T, Sihvonen AJ. Golden oldies and silver brains: Deficits, preservation, learning, and rehabilitation effects of music in ageing-related neurological disorders. Cortex. 2018 Dec;109:104-123. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.08.034. Epub 2018 Sep 19. Rev — View Citation

Sparks R, Helm N, Albert M. Aphasia rehabilitation resulting from melodic intonation therapy. Cortex. 1974 Dec;10(4):303-16. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change in Aphasia Quotient (AQ) in Cantonese Aphasia Battery	Two subtests of the Cantonese Aphasia Battery (auditory comprehension & spontaneous speech) will be executed. Higher AQ means better performance in the respective areas. The minimum of AQ in each subtest is 0, and the maximum is 20.	within a week after procedure
Secondary	Change in latency and accuracy in picture naming task	In the computerized picture naming task, subjects are asked to name the objects they see in 52 pictures, within 5000 ms per picture. Visual stimuli of the task are black and white line-drawings. Responses are all recorded for analysis.	within a week after procedure
Secondary	Change in performance of semantic fluency task	In the computerized semantic fluency task, subjects are given 5 categories (e.g. animals) and asked to name as many members of the categories (e.g. cat, dog) as possible. For each category, they have one minute to respond. All the responses are recorded for analysis.	within a week after procedure