Targeted TDCS to Enhance Speech-Language Treatment Outcome in Persons With Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia. (AphasiatDCS)

May 20, 2026 updated by: Jessica Richardson, University of New Mexico

Targeted Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Speech-Language Treatment Outcome in Persons With Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia

62 patients who are one year post stroke and have Aphasia as a result of that stroke will be recruited. Participants will have 4 assessment sessions and 15 treatment sessions. The TDCS will be to right Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) (25 active, 25 sham) for 15 days. A combined semantic feature analysis/phonological components analysis treatment will be paired with the stimulation. Two assessment sessions will be pretreatment, 1 session immediately post-treatment, and 1 session at 3 months follow-up.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Our long-term goal is to develop safe and effective treatments for the communication problems of Aphasia due to stroke that restore patients to higher levels of functioning, decrease disability, and promote higher quality of life. While language therapy for aphasia is effective, improvements are typically slow, and gains may be small. Noninvasive brain stimulation has been suggested as a method to enhance outcomes from language therapy. This study will examine whether outcomes for language therapy with brain stimulation are different from outcomes for language therapy without brain stimulation in people with aphasia. Our central hypotheses are (1) targeted right hemisphere HDtDCS (RH-HD-tDCS) administered in combination with language treatment will result in greater changes in naming accuracy than language treatment with the sham RH-HD-tDCS (2) RH-HD-tDCS plus language treatment will result in greater increases in communication within the affected hemisphere compared to language treatment plus sham RH-HD-tDCS (3) RH-HD-tDCS plus language treatment will result in greater increases in perilesional areas working together immediately post-treatment compared to language treatment plus sham RH-HD-tDCS

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
50

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New Mexico
      • Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, 87106
        • Recruiting
        • University of New Mexico Center for Brain Recovery and Repair
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

21 years to 81 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. aged 25-85
  2. must be greater than 6 months post-stroke
  3. must have a diagnosis of aphasia based on impaired performance on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised, Boston Naming Test, or during discourse production
  4. must be left-hemisphere dominant as demonstrated by aphasia onset subsequent to left hemisphere damage
  5. must be stimulable for naming

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. comorbid neurological disease.
  2. damage to the anterior right hemisphere.
  3. significant mood disorder.
  4. substance/alcohol dependence or abuse within the past year
  5. presence of any implanted electrical device or contraindications to tDCS or MRI
  6. recent medical instability (within 4 weeks)
  7. pregnancy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Active Comparator: Experimental: Active cathodal tDCS + Speech-language training
In this arm, 31 patients with stroke induced Aphasia will undergo 15 sessions of active tDCS (x 30 minutes of stimulation) combined with 1 hour simultaneous speech-language training on consecutive weekdays.
Device: Active Comparator: Experimental: Active cathodal tDCS + language training

Cathodal tDCS raises neuronal membrane potentials, leading to decreased probability of depolarization from incoming stimuli.

Speech and Language training involves a combined semantic feature analysis and phonological components analysis treatment.

Other Names:
  • Behavioral: Speech and Language Training
Sham Comparator: Comparator: Placebo cathodal tDCS + Speech-language training
In this arm, 31 patients with stroke induced Aphasia will undergo 15 sessions of sham tDCS (x 30 minutes sham) combined with 1 hour simultaneous speech-language training on consecutive weekdays..
Behavioral: Sham Comparator: Placebo cathodal tDCS + Speech and language
Speech and Language training involves a combined semantic feature analysis and phonological components analysis treatment. .

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Picture Naming of trained items
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in naming of pictures of trained items; 60 pictured items; higher score indicates improvement
3 months
Naming Response Time of trained items Scales - IV (WAIS-IV; Wechsler, Coalson, & Railford, 2008)
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in response time of naming of pictures of trained items; 0-20 seconds, decreased response time indicates improvement Scales - IV (WAIS-IV; Wechsler, Coalson, & Railford, 2008)
3 months
Naming Efficiency of trained items
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in efficiency of naming of pictures of trained items; median response time divided by proportion correct naming; smaller numbers indicate greater efficiency
3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Discourse informativeness - Main Concept Production
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in discourse informativeness as measured by main concept scores; increased values indicate improvement
3 months
Efficiency of discourse informativeness - Main Concept Production
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in efficiency of discourse informativeness; accurate and complete main concepts produced over the time of discourse elicitation (ACs/min); larger numbers indicate greater efficiency
3 months
Picture Naming of untrained items - Boston Naming Test
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in naming of pictures of untrained items; 60 pictured items; higher score indicates improvement
3 months
Naming Response Time of untrained items - Boston Naming Test
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in response time of naming of pictures of untrained items; 0-20 seconds, decreased response time indicates improvement
3 months
Naming Efficiency of untrained items - Boston Naming Test
Time Frame: 3 months
Change in efficiency of naming of pictures of untrained items; median response time divided by proportion correct naming; smaller numbers indicate greater efficiency
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of New Mexico

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Jessica Richardson, Ph.D., University of New Mexico

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
October 18, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
March 26, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
April 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
December 3, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 11, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
June 16, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
May 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 20, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • UNM HRRC #16-091
  • 1P20GM109089-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • R01DC018282 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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