Language and Lewy Body Diseases: Sentence Comprehension Problems and Modifying Noninvasive Brain Stimulation Treatment (LANG-LBD)

February 2, 2026 updated by: Masaryk University
Lewy body diseases (LBDs) represents a group of neurodegenerative disorders characterized by the abnormal accumulation of aggregates of α-synuclein protein leading to the formation of Lewy bodies (LB) and Lewy neurites resulting in cell death. LBDs consists of two major clinical entities - Parkinson's disease (PD) and dementia with LB (DLB). Vast majority of patients with LBDs either already have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at the time of the diagnosis or will develop it during the course of the disease. Language dysfunctions in LBDs patients with MCI are often unrecognized, which are difficult to treat, but even subtle changes might lead to impairment of social and occupational functioning with profound effect on their quality of lives. Current pharmacological or surgical strategies are effective for tackling the motor issues of LBDs with very limited effects on other symptoms such as language dysfunctions. Therefore, non-pharmacological approaches are gaining more attention. One of these non-pharmacological strategies is the use of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques that are able to modulate the brain functions with the effects on human nervous system plasticity. In this proposed project the investigators aim to first describe specific alterations in the language domain in LBDs patients with MCI as compared to healthy controls (HC) and identify the neural underpinnings of these changes using novel combination of advanced multimodal imaging techniques and various analytical methods. Secondly, the investigators aim to use NIBS as a supervised and individualized home-based therapeutical approach to tackle the language dysfunctions.

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.

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.
90

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 Locations

  • Czechia
      • Brno, Czechia, 62500
        • Recruiting
        • Masaryk University CEITEC
        • Contact:
          • Lubomira Novakova
          • Phone Number: +420549497766

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • right-handedness
  • Czech as their first language
  • age (60-80 years)
  • presence of PD-MCI (Litvan et al. 2012) or MCI-LB (McKeith et al. 2020) for LBD subjects

Exclusion Criteria:

  • cardio pacemaker
  • any MRI-incompatible metal in the body
  • epilepsy
  • any diagnosed psychiatric disorders
  • alcohol/drug abuse
  • for HC group the presence of LBDs or other neurodegenerative disorder or MCI/dementia

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: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

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.
No Intervention: Differences between LBDs patients and HC in regulation of language functions
In this study, 25 LBDs patients and 25 HC will undergo neuropsychological assessment, speech and writing recording, and MRI (structural T1 sequences, sentence comprehension fMRI task, neuromelanin-sensitive MRI sequence, and resting state measurement). The HC group will be matched to the LBDs patients with MCI for gender and age.
Experimental: Long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS delivered via telepractice
The investigators will use a parallel-group, double-blinded, randomized, sham-stimulation-controlled design. Forty LBDs patients will be randomized into two parallel groups, n = 20 subjects in each arm. For the active group, the investigators will use the stimulation protocol with the anode over the left IFG (cathode over the right supraorbital area, 2mA, 20 minutes). Participants will undergo a baseline assessment (A0, as described in arm 1); 10 stimulation sessions (in a two-week period); a follow-up assessment immediately after tDCS treatment (A1), and follow-up assessments 8 weeks (A2) after the baseline assessment. Each assessment will consist of a brief neuropsychological assessment, speech and writing recording and MRI scanning.
Device: transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
tDCS using electric currents to modulate underlying neurons

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
sentence comprehension performance - accuracy
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
the investigators will study comprehension of syntactically complex sentences - accuracy in sentence comprehension task
through study completion, an average of 1 year
sentence comprehension performance - reaction times
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
the investigators will study comprehension of syntactically complex sentences - reaction times in sentence comprehension task
through study completion, an average of 1 year

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
relation of sentence comprehension performance to cognitive performance
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
the investigators will correlate sentence comprehension with cognitive functions: z-scores in following domains - memory, attention, executive function, visuospatial function and language function of Short Neuropsychological Battery (Bolcekova et al. 2020)
through study completion, an average of 1 year
The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - sentence comprehension fMRI task data
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
The investigators will identify connectivity differences between HC and LBDs patients with MCI in language-related domain-specific and domain-general networks. In the task-based fMRI study, LBDs patients with MCI will show reduced activation and altered functional connectivity within and between these large-scale cortical networks compared to HC.
through study completion, an average of 1 year
The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - resting state data
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
Abnormal intra- and inter-network dynamics will be apparent in resting-state fMRI of LBDs patients with MCI as compared to HC.
through study completion, an average of 1 year
The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - structural MRI data
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
LBDs patients with MCI will show structural changes in language-related domain-specific and domain-general networks with neural degeneration as assessed by NMS-MRI as compared to HC.
through study completion, an average of 1 year
the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension - accuracy
Time Frame: On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the investigators will investigate the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension of syntactically complex sentences - accuracy in sentence comprehension task (as was described in outcome 1)
On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension - reaction times
Time Frame: On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the investigators will investigate the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension of syntactically complex sentences - reaction times in sentence comprehension task (as was described in outcome 2)
On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension - The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - resting state data
Time Frame: On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the investigators will investigate the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on resting state data (as was described in outcome 5)
On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension - The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - sentence comprehension fMRI task data
Time Frame: On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the investigators will investigate the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension fMRI task data (as was described in outcome 4)
On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on sentence comprehension - The neural underpinning of sentence comprehension deficits - structural MRI data
Time Frame: On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment
the investigators will investigate the long-term effects of repeated sessions of home-based tDCS on structural MRI data (as was described in outcome 6)
On the beginning of the study, after completion of two-week stimulation a eight weeks after the baseline assessment

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.
Masaryk University

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.
May 1, 2023

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.
December 31, 2026

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.
December 31, 2026

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).
April 13, 2023

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.
April 26, 2023

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.
May 8, 2023

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.
February 4, 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.
February 2, 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.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

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.
  • NU23J-04-00005

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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.

Clinical Trials on Healthy Aging

Clinical Trials on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings