Using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to Treat Stuttering

February 4, 2026 updated by: Kristin Pelczarski, Kansas State University

Modulating Bilateral Cortical Activation In Adults Who Stutter: A Pilot Study

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if repeated transcranial magnetic stimuli (rTMS) can treat stuttering in adults. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Will there be changes in the brains of people who stutter because of the treatment?
  • Will any changes in the brain result in less stuttering?

Participants will:

  • Visit the lab 3 times before treatment for tests
  • Complete 10 rTMS sessions
  • Visit the lab 2 times after treatment for tests

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Measures must be obtained to in preparation for TMS treatment. Structural MRI and resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) recordings will be obtained from the participant, and they will undergo a neuronavigational session to determine best placement for the electrodes.

MRI/rsfMRI recordings: The structural MRIs will be obtained and used for TMS neuronavigation. Resting-state functional MRI will be recorded for 8 min with the eyes open. rTMS will be delivered at 10 Hz for 10 min with a stimulation intensity of 120% of the resting motor threshold (rMT).

Neuronavigation: The TMS coil will be navigated with a neuronavigation system using the individual MRIs. rTMS targets: rTMS will be delivered to the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). We will use the neuronavigation system to identify the IFG.

Three pre-treatment and 2 post-treatment sessions will each obtain data from the following measurements:

  • rs-EEG: rs-EEG responses will be recorded with eyes open for 5 minutes using a 64-channel EEG system.
  • Eye tracker: eye gaze fixations, dwell time, saccades, and gaze durations will be recorded while the participant completes several behavioral phonological memory tasks.
  • Spontaneous speech sample will be obtained to determine percent syllables stuttered.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

2

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 Contact

  • Name: Kristin Pelczarski, Ph.D.
  • Phone Number: 785-532-6879
  • Email: kpelczar@ksu.edu

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Kansas
      • Manhattan, Kansas, United States, 66506-7500
        • Recruiting
        • Bluemont Hall, Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Julio Hernandez Pavon, Ph.D., D.Sc.
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Kristin Pelczarski, Ph.D.

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age from 18 to 65 years
  • Self-identifies as a person who currently stutters
  • Right-handed or left-handed
  • Normal hearing and (corrected) vision
  • Able to understand and give informed consent
  • Monolingual English speaker

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Cardiac pacemaker or pacemaker wires; neurostimulators; implanted pumps
  • Metal in the body (rods, plates, screws, shrapnel, dentures, IUD) or metallic particles in the eye
  • Facial tattoos
  • Not having medical insurance
  • Surgical clips in the head or previous neurosurgery
  • Any magnetic particles in the body
  • Cochlear implants
  • Prosthetic heart valves
  • Epilepsy or any other type of seizure history
  • History of significant head trauma (i.e., extended loss of consciousness, neurological sequelae)
  • Known structural brain lesions
  • Pre-existing speech, language, or neurological disorder (except for stuttering)
  • Significant other disease (heart disease, malignant tumors, mental disorders)
  • Significant claustrophobia; Ménière's disease
  • Women who are trying to get pregnant and sexually active women (of reproductive age) not on a reliable contraceptive
  • Pregnancy, breastfeeding
  • Medications increasing the risk for seizures
  • Non-prescribed drug use
  • Use of recreational drugs such as medical marijuana
  • Failure to perform the behavioral tasks or neuropsychological evaluation tests
  • Prisoners

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat stuttering
There is only one arm to this study. All participants will receive 10 days of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to specific cortical speech and motor areas.
Device: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
This study uses Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) applied to specific speech and motor areas of the brain to stimulate cortical areas that experience reduced activations during left-hemisphere dominant tasks in people who stutter.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in behavioral measures of stuttering and phonological processing.
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-treatment, and one week after post-treatment.
To assess functional changes as a result of rTMS treatment, comparison of eye tracking measurements of duration, dwell time, and number of fixations of eye movements while completing speech and language-based tasks are compared across sessions.
Baseline, immediately post-treatment, and one week after post-treatment.
Changes in functional connectivity with resting-state electroencephalography (rs-EEG)
Time Frame: Baseline, immediately post-treatment, and one week after post-treatment.
A seed-based functional connectivity analysis will be carried out between the two stimulated brain areas. To assess the changes in effective connectivity, the investigators will compare the seed-based connectivity values across sessions.
Baseline, immediately post-treatment, and one week after post-treatment.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Kansas State University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kristin Pelczarski, Ph.D., Kansas State University
  • Principal Investigator: Julio Hernandez Pavon, Ph.D., DSc, Kansas State University

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 (Estimated)

February 15, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 15, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 15, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 29, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

February 5, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 4, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • KPelczarski

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

IPD used in the results publication with be shared with other researchers.

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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