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Vagal Nerve Stimulation To Enhance Cognition and Learning

17. července 2026 aktualizováno: Sima Mofakham, Stony Brook University

Evaluation of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired With Cognitive Training to Enhance Learning and Memory and Neural Plasticity in Post-Stroke Patients

The purpose of this study is to find out whether pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with cognitive training can improve memory and language learning in people who have previously used VNS therapy for movement rehabilitation after a stroke. VNS has been previously used to support motor recovery after stroke, but its effect on cognitive learning is not yet fully understood. This study is enrolling individuals who already have a VNS device implanted and have successfully completed VNS-assisted movement therapy. The investigators aim to explore whether continuing to use the device during a language learning program may also support memory and cognitive improvement. This is a research study, which means the use of VNS for cognitive enhancement is experimental and not currently part of standard treatment. An exploratory MRI/fMRI component also will assess whether VNS-paired language learning is associated with changes in task-based activation and resting-state functional connectivity in language, memory, salience/arousal, and frontoparietal cognitive-control networks. The information learned may help guide future approaches to stroke rehabilitation and cognitive recovery.

Přehled studie

Postavení

Zápis na pozvánku

Podmínky

Intervence / Léčba

Detailní popis

Stroke survivors frequently experience persistent cognitive, memory, and language-related difficulties that can affect independence and quality of life. VNS paired with rehabilitation has been shown to enhance motor recovery after stroke, and paired stimulation may support experience-dependent neural plasticity. This study extends that approach to cognitive and language learning by pairing VNS with structured foreign-language vocabulary training.

Eligible participants will be adults with prior stroke who are scheduled to receive, or have received, clinically indicated Vivistim VNS implantation for rehabilitation and who are able to participate in the language-learning intervention. Participants will be randomized to active VNS or sham stimulation during daily language-learning sessions over approximately six weeks. The active stimulation group will receive programmed VNS paired with language-learning stimuli; the sham group will undergo the same language-learning procedures with stimulation amplitude set to zero or otherwise configured according to the sham protocol. Participants will be blinded to group assignment when feasible.

The neuroimaging sub-study will include MRI/fMRI at up to three time points: pre-surgery baseline, when feasible before clinically indicated implantation; post-surgery/pre-language-training baseline; and post-training. The post-surgery/pre-training scan is the key baseline for the language-learning intervention, particularly for participants who already have the device implanted. MRI sessions will include structural MRI, resting-state fMRI, and a task-based foreign-word semantic matching paradigm. The primary task-based fMRI contrast will examine changes in neural responses to future-trained versus trained foreign words compared with never-trained foreign words. Resting-state analyses will examine changes in functional connectivity across language, memory, salience/arousal, frontoparietal cognitive control, and stroke recovery networks. A brief optional 0-back/1-back working-memory fMRI task may be included if scan time and participant tolerance allow.

Typ studie

Intervenční

Zápis (Odhadovaný)

20

Fáze

  • Nelze použít

Kontakty a umístění

Tato část poskytuje kontaktní údaje pro ty, kteří studii provádějí, a informace o tom, kde se tato studie provádí.

Studijní místa

    • New York
      • Stony Brook, New York, Spojené státy, 11790
        • Stony Brook University Hospital

Kritéria účasti

Výzkumníci hledají lidi, kteří odpovídají určitému popisu, kterému se říká kritéria způsobilosti. Některé příklady těchto kritérií jsou celkový zdravotní stav osoby nebo předchozí léčba.

Kritéria způsobilosti

Věk způsobilý ke studiu

  • Dospělý
  • Starší dospělý

Přijímá zdravé dobrovolníky

Ne

Popis

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults aged 22 years or older
  • History of stroke
  • Implanted with a Vivistim™ VNS device
  • Monolingual in English
  • Home-dwelling and independent in activities of daily living
  • No prior language training in the selected language of learning
  • Tolerated 6 weeks of movement therapy at 0.8 mA without incident and has used the device for at-home stimulation without incident
  • Willing and able to participate in a six-week at-home intervention
  • Clinically stable, without major concurrent medical conditions that would interfere with study participation

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe aphasia
  • Unable to read and/or write in English
  • Significant uncorrected hearing or visual impairment
  • Unable to commit to 6 weeks of therapy
  • Pregnancy
  • Prisoner or ward of the state
  • Any medical condition that, in the investigator's judgment, would make participation unsafe
  • Younger than 22 years of age

Studijní plán

Tato část poskytuje podrobnosti o studijním plánu, včetně toho, jak je studie navržena a co studie měří.

Jak je studie koncipována?

Detaily designu

  • Primární účel: Léčba
  • Přidělení: Randomizované
  • Intervenční model: Paralelní přiřazení
  • Maskování: Singl

Zbraně a zásahy

Skupina účastníků / Arm
Intervence / Léčba
Aktivní komparátor: VNS Group
Group that was implanted with VNS and will receive stimulations
Subjects previously implanted with VNS will undergo second language acquisition
Falešný srovnávač: Sham Group
Group that will receive sham stimulations
Subjects previously implanted with VNS will undergo second language acquisition

Co je měření studie?

Primární výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Change in Foreign-Language Vocabulary Learning Accuracy
Časové okno: Baseline and 6 weeks
Vocabulary learning will be assessed using trained foreign-language vocabulary items. The outcome is the percentage of trained vocabulary items correctly recalled, recognized, or translated. Scores range from 0% to 100%, with higher scores indicating better vocabulary learning.
Baseline and 6 weeks
Change in Foreign-Language Sentence Learning Accuracy
Časové okno: Baseline and 6 weeks
Sentence learning will be assessed using trained short foreign-language sentences. The outcome is the percentage of trained sentence items correctly understood, completed, recalled, or translated. Scores range from 0% to 100%, with higher scores indicating better sentence learning.
Baseline and 6 weeks

Sekundární výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Change in Global Cognition on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Global cognition will be measured using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment total score. Scores range from 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating better cognitive function.
6 weeks
Change in Verbal Learning on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Verbal learning will be measured as the total number of words recalled across Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test learning trials. Scores range from 0 to 75, with higher scores indicating better verbal learning.
6 weeks
Change in Delayed Verbal Memory on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Delayed verbal memory will be measured as the number of words recalled after a delay on the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Scores range from 0 to 15, with higher scores indicating better delayed verbal memory.
6 weeks
Change in Verbal Learning on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Verbal learning will be measured as the total number of words recalled across Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised immediate recall trials. Scores range from 0 to 36, with higher scores indicating better verbal learning.
6 weeks
Change in Delayed Verbal Memory on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Delayed verbal memory will be measured as the number of words recalled after a delay on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised. Scores range from 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating better delayed verbal memory.
6 weeks
Change in Language Function on the Western Aphasia Battery
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Language function will be measured using the Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better language function.
6 weeks
Change in Story Recall on the Automatic Story Recall Test
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Story recall will be measured using the Automatic Story Recall Test score. Scores will be reported as the percentage of story content correctly recalled, ranging from 0% to 100%, with higher scores indicating better story recall.
6 weeks
Change in Working Memory on the Digit Span Task
Časové okno: 6 weeks
Working memory will be measured using the Digit Span Task total raw score. Scores range from 0 to 48 if using the WAIS-IV Digit Span version, with higher scores indicating better working memory.
6 weeks

Další výstupní opatření

Měření výsledku
Popis opatření
Časové okno
Change in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Between Language and Memory Networks
Časové okno: Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Resting-state functional connectivity between predefined language and memory networks will be measured. The outcome will be reported as change in Fisher z-transformed correlation coefficients between these networks. Higher values indicate stronger functional connectivity.
Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Change in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Between Language and Salience/Arousal Networks
Časové okno: Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Resting-state functional connectivity between predefined language and salience/arousal networks will be measured. The outcome will be reported as change in Fisher z-transformed correlation coefficients between these networks. Higher values indicate stronger functional connectivity.
Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Change in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Between Language and Default Mode Networks
Časové okno: Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Resting-state functional connectivity between predefined language and default mode networks will be measured. The outcome will be reported as change in Fisher z-transformed correlation coefficients between these networks. Higher values indicate stronger functional connectivity.
Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Change in Resting-State Functional Connectivity Between Language and Frontoparietal Cognitive-Control Networks
Časové okno: Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Resting-state functional connectivity between predefined language and frontoparietal cognitive-control networks will be measured. The outcome will be reported as change in Fisher z-transformed correlation coefficients between these networks. Higher values indicate stronger functional connectivity.
Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention
Change in Task-Based fMRI Activation During Foreign-Word Processing
Časové okno: Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention.
Task-based fMRI activation will be measured during presentation of trained, future-trained, and never-trained foreign words. The outcome will be reported as change in blood-oxygen-level-dependent activation, measured by contrast estimate or percent signal change, for trained and future-trained words compared with never-trained words. Higher values indicate greater task-related activation.
Pre-surgery baseline, post-surgery/pre-training baseline, and immediately after the 6-week language-training intervention.

Spolupracovníci a vyšetřovatelé

Zde najdete lidi a organizace zapojené do této studie.

Sponzor

Termíny studijních záznamů

Tato data sledují průběh záznamů studie a předkládání souhrnných výsledků na ClinicalTrials.gov. Záznamy ze studií a hlášené výsledky jsou před zveřejněním na veřejné webové stránce přezkoumány Národní lékařskou knihovnou (NLM), aby se ujistily, že splňují specifické standardy kontroly kvality.

Hlavní termíny studia

Začátek studia (Aktuální)

17. listopadu 2025

Primární dokončení (Odhadovaný)

1. prosince 2026

Dokončení studie (Odhadovaný)

1. prosince 2026

Termíny zápisu do studia

První předloženo

26. června 2026

První předloženo, které splnilo kritéria kontroly kvality

17. července 2026

První zveřejněno (Aktuální)

22. července 2026

Aktualizace studijních záznamů

Poslední zveřejněná aktualizace (Aktuální)

22. července 2026

Odeslaná poslední aktualizace, která splnila kritéria kontroly kvality

17. července 2026

Naposledy ověřeno

1. ledna 2026

Více informací

Termíny související s touto studií

Další identifikační čísla studie

  • IRB2025-00209

Plán pro data jednotlivých účastníků (IPD)

Plánujete sdílet data jednotlivých účastníků (IPD)?

ANO

Časový rámec sdílení IPD

Within one year of study completion

Typ podpůrných informací pro sdílení IPD

  • PROTOKOL STUDY
  • ICF

Informace o lécích a zařízeních, studijní dokumenty

Studuje lékový produkt regulovaný americkým FDA

Ne

Studuje produkt zařízení regulovaný americkým úřadem FDA

Ano

produkt vyrobený a vyvážený z USA

Ano

Tyto informace byly beze změn načteny přímo z webu clinicaltrials.gov. Máte-li jakékoli požadavky na změnu, odstranění nebo aktualizaci podrobností studie, kontaktujte prosím register@clinicaltrials.gov. Jakmile bude změna implementována na clinicaltrials.gov, bude automaticky aktualizována i na našem webu .