Modeling Treated Recovery From Aphasia

April 27, 2022 updated by: Julius Fridriksson, University of South Carolina

(C-STAR) Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery Modeling Treated Recovery From Aphasia

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the United States, and aphasia is common following a stroke to the left hemisphere of the brain. Aphasia therapy can improve aphasia recover; however, very little is known about how different patients respond to different types of treatments.

The purpose of this study is to understand how the following factors influence an individual's response to aphasia treatment: 1) biographical factors (e.g., age, education, gender), 2) post-stroke cognitive/linguistic abilities and learning potential, and 3) the location and extent of post-stroke brain damage. We are also interested in understanding the kinds of treatment materials that should be emphasized in speech/language treatment.

Overall, the goal of the current research is to inform the clinical management of post-stroke aphasia by identifying factors that can predict how an individual will respond to different treatment methods.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

127

Phase

  • 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 Locations

  • United States
    • South Carolina
      • Charleston, South Carolina, United States, 29425
        • Medical University of South Carolina
      • Columbia, South Carolina, United States, 29208
        • University of South Carolina

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

Ages Eligible for Study

21 years to 80 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Experienced a left hemisphere ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke At least 12 months post-stroke
  • Primarily English speaker for the past 20 years
  • Ability to provide informed written or verbal consent MRI-compatible (e.g., no metal implants, not claustrophobic)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of a right hemisphere stroke (Bilateral stroke)
  • Clinically reported history of dementia, alcohol abuse, psychiatric disorder, traumatic brain injury, or extensive visual acuity or visual-spatial problems
  • Severely limited speech production and/or auditory comprehension that interferes with adequate participation in the therapy provided

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: CROSSOVER
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Semantically focused treatment
This treatment will focus on improving word finding and comprehension of information.
Behavioral: Semantically focused treatment

Tasks are as follows:

  1. Semantic feature analysis (SFA): For each pictured stimulus the patient is prompted to name the picture, and then to produce related words that represent features similar to the target word.
  2. Semantic barrier task: The goal is for one participant (e.g., patient) to describe each card so that the other participant (e.g., clinician) can guess the picture on the card. Participants are only allowed to describe the semantic features of the target and the clinician models the kinds of cues that are allowed.
  3. Verb network strengthening treatment (VNeST): This treatment targets lexical retrieval of verbs and their thematic nouns. The objective of VNeST is for the patient to generate verb-noun associates with the purpose of strengthening the connections between the verb and its uses.

These are tasks used in clinical aphasia rehabilitation.
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Phonologically focused treatment
This treatment will focus on training speech sound production, targeting overall production abilities.
Behavioral: Phonologically focused treatment

Tasks are as follows:

  1. Phonological (sound) components analysis task: Participants are to name a given picture and then to identify the sound features of the target words (e.g., first sound, last sound, and rhyme).
  2. Phonological production task: This tasks asks participants to sort and identify the sounds that make up a word. Various stages include identifying first sounds, last sounds, etc. Participants also work on blending sounds together to form words.
  3. The phonological judgment task: A computerized presentation of verbs and nouns where participants are required to judge whether pairs of words include similar phonological features.

These are tasks used in clinical aphasia rehabilitation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Philadelphia Naming Test
Time Frame: 6 months
Assesses the ability to name functional objects
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of South Carolina

Collaborators

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Julius Fridriksson, PhD, CCC-SLP, University of South Carolina

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

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)

August 2, 2016

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

May 30, 2021

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

May 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 23, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 30, 2018

First Posted (ACTUAL)

January 31, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

April 28, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 27, 2022

Last Verified

April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00053559
  • P50DC014664 (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

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.

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