Improving Aphasia Using Electrical Brain Stimulation

January 13, 2026 updated by: Syracuse University

Improving Aphasia Outcomes Through tDCS-Mediated Attention Management

Language and communication are essential for almost every aspect of human life, but for people who have aphasia, a language processing disorder that can occur after stroke or brain injury, even simple conversations can become a formidable challenge. Speech and language therapy can help people recover their language ability, but often requires months or even years of therapy before a person is able to overcome these challenges. This research will investigate non-invasive brain stimulation as a way to enhance the effects of speech and language therapy, which may ultimately lead to better and faster recovery from stroke and aphasia. The investigators hypothesize that participants with aphasia who receive speech and language therapy paired with active electrical brain stimulation will improve significantly more on a language comprehension task than those who receive speech and language therapy paired with sham stimulation.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

23

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
    • New York
      • Syracuse, New York, United States, 13244
        • Syracuse University

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

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. 18 years or older.
  2. No diagnosis of neurological disorder (other than stroke).
  3. No diagnosis of psychiatric disorder.
  4. No seizure within the past 6 months.
  5. Not pregnant.
  6. In chronic phase of recovery, defined as at least 6 months post-stroke.
  7. Not undergoing speech and language therapy targeting auditory comprehension or attention for the duration of the study.
  8. No metal implants in the head.
  9. No unhealed skull fractures.
  10. Onset of aphasia related to left hemisphere stroke.
  11. Damaged brain tissue from stroke does not overlap with left hemisphere dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
  12. Mild to moderate aphasia.
  13. Cognitive ability minimally within functional limits.
  14. Able to pass vision and hearing screening (with use of corrective aids if needed; eyeglasses, hearing aids).
  15. Willing to allow audio-recording of study sessions.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Younger than 18 years old.
  2. Diagnosis or history of neurological disorder other than stroke.
  3. Diagnosis or history of psychiatric disorder.
  4. History of seizures within the past 6 months.
  5. Pregnant.
  6. <6 months post-stroke (however, if this is only exclusionary criterion met, participant can be re-evaluated at the 6-month mark if still interested in the study)
  7. Currently undergoing speech and language therapy targeting auditory comprehension or attention.
  8. Metal implants in the head.
  9. Currently has a skull fracture.
  10. Onset of aphasia related to etiology other than left hemisphere stroke.
  11. Damaged brain tissue includes left hemisphere dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
  12. No aphasia or severe aphasia.
  13. Cognitive ability below functional limits.
  14. Unable to pass vision and/or hearing screening with use of corrective aids.
  15. Unwilling to allow audio-recording of study sessions.

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: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) paired with speech-language therapy
Active transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) will be delivered using a Soterix mini-CT device. Participants receiving this treatment will be administered 2 milliamperes (mA) of current for 20 minutes/session with the anode electrode placed over F3 and the cathode electrode placed over Fp2 (according to the 1020 system). The tDCS will be paired with 60 minutes of speech-language therapy focusing simultaneously improving auditory comprehension and behavioral attention. All study participants will receive 10 sessions of this combination treatment with no more than one session per day 2-3 times per week.
Device: Active transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
Active transcranial direct current stimulation will be delivered using a Soterix mini-CT device. Participants receiving this treatment will be administered 2 milliamperes (mA) of current for 20 minutes/session for 10 sessions.
Behavioral: Language Specific Attention Treatment
This is a specific type of speech-language therapy that focuses on simultaneously improving auditory comprehension and behavioral attention. All study participants will receive 10 sessions of this treatment.
Sham Comparator: Sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) paired with speech-language therapy
Sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) will be delivered using a Soterix mini-CT device. Participants receiving this treatment will be administered 2 milliamperes (mA) of current for 1 minute to simulate the experience of tDCS, after which the current will be ramped down to zero for the remaining 19 minutes of the session with the anode electrode placed over F3 and the cathode electrode placed over Fp2 (according to the 1020 system). The tDCS will be paired with 60 minutes of speech-language therapy focusing simultaneously improving auditory comprehension and behavioral attention. All study participants will receive 10 sessions of this combination treatment with no more than one session per day 2-3 times per week.
Behavioral: Language Specific Attention Treatment
This is a specific type of speech-language therapy that focuses on simultaneously improving auditory comprehension and behavioral attention. All study participants will receive 10 sessions of this treatment.
Device: Sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
Sham transcranial direct current stimulation will be delivered using a Soterix mini-CT device. Participants receiving this treatment will be administered 2 milliamperes (mA) of current for 1 minute to simulate the experience of tDCS, after which the current will be ramped down to zero for the remaining 19 minutes of the session. Participants in this arm will receive sham stimulation for 10 sessions.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Language Specific Attention Treatment Probe
Time Frame: Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
Measurement of auditory comprehension for untrained sentence-level stimuli. Participants listen to a sentence and are asked to answer comprehension questions about the sentence they heard. Results are reported as the percentage of correct responses out of the total number of items administered. Higher percentages indicate better performance and less auditory comprehension impairment.
Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Continuous Performance Test
Time Frame: Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
Change in sustained attention as measured by mean reaction time on the Continuous Performance Test. Participants monitor a screen and press a button for all stimuli except a specific 'no-go' target. The value reported is the mean response time in milliseconds (ms) for correct 'go' trials; a decrease in time indicates improved processing speed.
Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
Attention Network Test
Time Frame: Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline

The Attention Network Test (ANT) is a computerized task that measures the efficiency of three distinct attentional networks: Alerting, Orienting, and Executive (Conflict) control.

Alerting Network Score: Calculated by subtracting the mean reaction time (RT) of double-cue trials from no-cue trials. Range: -500ms to +500ms. Higher positive scores represent a greater alerting benefit.

Orienting Network Score: Calculated by subtracting the mean RT of spatial-cue trials from center-cue trials. Range: -500ms to +500ms. Higher positive scores represent a greater orienting benefit.

Conflict (Executive) Network Score: Calculated by subtracting the mean RT of congruent flanker trials from incongruent flanker trials. Range: -500ms to +1000ms. Lower scores represent better executive control and less interference from distracting stimuli.
Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
Scenario Test
Time Frame: Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
The Scenario Test assesses daily life communication and discourse through 6 multi-modal scenarios presented via pictures. Participants are prompted to respond to specific communicative situations. Performance is scored based on the effectiveness of communication (verbal and non-verbal) for each item. Results are reported as the average percentage of correct communicative acts out of the total possible score. Range: 0% to 100%, where higher percentages indicate better functional communication and less severe impairment.
Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
Revised Token Test
Time Frame: Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline
The Revised Token Test assesses auditory comprehension battery; 5 subtests were administered that contributed to the total score. Results are reported as a mean of the 5 subtest scores. Range of scores is 1 to 15, higher scores represent better performance and less severe auditory comprehension impairment.
Pre-treatment: Baseline measure collected before treatment; Post-treatment: 5-6 weeks after baseline; Follow-up: 10-11 weeks after baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Syracuse University

Collaborators

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

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.

General Publications

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)

July 12, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 15, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 21, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 14, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

July 15, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 30, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 13, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1R21DC017787-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The final dataset will include self-reported demographic data (e.g., age, race, gender), medical information related to participant's stroke (e.g., date of onset, lesion location), and behavioral data obtained from cognitive and language tasks administered in the Syracuse University Aphasia Lab as part of the study. The final computerized dataset will be stripped of all personal identifiers. The investigators will make the data and associated documentation available to users only via a signed data-sharing agreement that stipulates a commitment to: (1) only use the data for research purposes and not to identify any individual participants, (2) securely storing the data via password-protected databases and secure servers, and (3) destroying or returning the data after analyses are completed. Data sharing will be available upon publication of the main study findings.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Starting 1 year after publication.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

The investigators will make the data and associated documentation available to users only via a signed data-sharing agreement that stipulates a commitment to: (1) only use the data for research purposes and not to identify any individual participants, (2) securely storing the data via password-protected databases and secure servers, and (3) destroying or returning the data after analyses are completed.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP
  • ICF
  • CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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