Modulating Speech Perception With Current Stimulation (SPEECHSTIM)

Modulating Speech Perception With Current Stimulation (SPEECHSTIM)

This study aims to further develop tACS as a tool to improve speech perception, by manipulation of brain-speech synchronisation ("entrainment"), thereby transforming a promising approach into a technique that can benefit to society on a large scale.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS); Procedure: electroencephalography (EEG); Procedure: brain imaging (fMRI); Procedure: electroencephalography (EEG) with neurofeedback

Detailed Description

Neural oscillations align their phase to the rhythm of speech. This phenomenon is termed neural entrainment and associated with successful speech comprehension. Importantly, we have demonstrated that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can be used to manipulate how neural activity aligns to speech rhythm, leading to changes in speech perception. The aim of Experiment 1 is to understand how tACS operates on the neural level. This aim will be reached by testing whether tACS produces rhythmic electroencephalography (EEG) responses that outlast the stimulation, indicating an involvement of endogenous oscillatory activity. The aim of Experiment 2 is to increase efficacy of tACS and, consequently, its potential to play an important role in research and everyday life applications. This aim will be reached by using brain imaging (fMRI) to predict optimal stimulation protocols for individual participants. The aim of Experiment 3 is to reveal how tACS can boost speech perception in a multi-speaker scenario. This aim will be reached by using tACS to enhance attended speech or suppress distracting speech, and by comparing these two approaches in their efficacy to boost speech perception. The aim of Experiment 4 is to combine established techniques to create novel opportunities to improve speech perception. This aim will be reached by using neurofeedback to teach participants to enhance their own neural entrainment, applying tACS to support them in this process.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 126
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Mathieu MARX, PU-PH; Phone Number: 33 +33 (0)5 61 77 77 04; Email: marx.m@chu-toulouse.fr
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Benedikt ZOEFEL, MD

Study Locations

• France
  • Toulouse, France, 31059
    • Recruiting
    • CHU Toulouse

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 50 years (ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Subject aged between 18 and 50 years old
• informed written consent
• Absence of pro-epileptogenic drugs
• Absence of visual or hearing impairment incompatible with participation in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women,
• Persons protected by law adults under guardianship or curatorship
• Persons not affiliated to a Social Security scheme
• Subjects with progressive psychiatric or neurological pathology
• Subjects with a contraindication to tCS or MRI (history of epilepsy, severe head injury or brain/spinal cord surgery, cardiac pacemaker/defibrillator, implanted equipment activated by electrical, magnetic or mechanical system, hemostatic clip carriers of intracerebral aneurysms or carotid arteries, orthopedic implant carriers, claustrophobic, pregnancy).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Experiment 1; The aim of Experiment 1 is to understand how tACS operates on the neural level	Procedure: transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS); transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) used to manipulate how neural activity aligns to speech rhythm, leading to changes in speech perception; Procedure: electroencephalography (EEG); analyse rhythmic electroencephalography responses that outlast the stimulation
EXPERIMENTAL: Experiment 2; The aim of Experiment 2 is to increase efficacy of tACS and, consequently, its potential to play an important role in research and everyday life applications	Procedure: transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS); transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) used to manipulate how neural activity aligns to speech rhythm, leading to changes in speech perception; Procedure: brain imaging (fMRI); Using brain imaging (fMRI) to predict optimal stimulation protocols for individual participants
EXPERIMENTAL: Experiment 3; The aim of Experiment 3 is to reveal how tACS can boost speech perception in a multi-speaker scenario.	Procedure: transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS); transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) used to manipulate how neural activity aligns to speech rhythm, leading to changes in speech perception
EXPERIMENTAL: Experiment 4; The aim of Experiment 4 is to combine established techniques to create novel opportunities to improve speech perception	Procedure: transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS); transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) used to manipulate how neural activity aligns to speech rhythm, leading to changes in speech perception; Procedure: electroencephalography (EEG) with neurofeedback; Using neurofeedback to teach participants to enhance their own neural entrainment

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
correctly identified words	percentage of correctly identified words during or after tACS who will permit to evaluate efficacy of tACS to modulate speech perception and neural responses in different experimental conditions (involving electrophysiological, brain imaging, and perceptual measures)	Day 1

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
correctly identified words with different modality	percentage of correctly identified words during or after tACS between different modality	day 1
oscillatory activities	measurement of oscillatory activities resulting from electrical stimulation: (frequency, power, and phase, latency) on the scalp and at the level of the sources and their synchronization with during or after tACS	Day 1
neural activity	measurement of neural activity that results from electrical stimulation: fMRI (BOLD response) during or after tACS	Day 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Toulouse
• Collaborators: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• van Bree S, Sohoglu E, Davis MH, Zoefel B. Sustained neural rhythms reveal endogenous oscillations supporting speech perception. PLoS Biol. 2021 Feb 26;19(2):e3001142. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001142. eCollection 2021 Feb.
• Zoefel B, Davis MH, Valente G, Riecke L. How to test for phasic modulation of neural and behavioural responses. Neuroimage. 2019 Nov 15;202:116175. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116175. Epub 2019 Sep 6.
• Zoefel B, Allard I, Anil M, Davis MH. Perception of Rhythmic Speech Is Modulated by Focal Bilateral Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation. J Cogn Neurosci. 2020 Feb;32(2):226-240. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01490. Epub 2019 Oct 29.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): July 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (ANTICIPATED): September 1, 2025
• Study Completion (ANTICIPATED): September 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 1, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 1, 2022
• First Posted (ACTUAL): July 6, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): August 19, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 18, 2022
• Last Verified: August 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: neurofeedback; speech; perception; phase; entrainment; neural oscillations; Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS),
• Other Study ID Numbers: RC31/20/0340; 2020-A02707-32 (OTHER: Id-RCB); STIMPAROLE (OTHER: Acronyme)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No