Active clinical trials for "Aphasia"

The purpose of this study is to determine whether VR based language rehabilitation scenario based on the core premises of ILAT has a beneficial effect on the linguistic performance (faster retrieval of the target lexicon and general fluency) of Broca's aphasia patients. Furthermore, it aims at testing the effects of cueing (visual and auditory) on word retrieval.

In the present sham-controlled study, the investigators examine whether tDCS could be used to enhance language abilities (e.g., picture naming) in individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) primarily characterized by difficulties with speech production.

Constraint-induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) has proven effective in stroke patients. It has remained unclear, however, whether intensity of therapy or constraint is the relevant factor. This study will give an answer to this question to improve speech and language therapy.

We hypothesize patients who have difficulty with word recall (naming pictures) due to a stroke will experience greater benefit in word recall after receiving a combination of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and traditional behavioral treatment. This study will investigate the effects of the timing of tDCS in relationship to the behavioral treatment to determine the most optimal protocol. Transcranial direct current stimulation involves placing two electrodes on your scalp and sending a very small electrical current to excite the brain cells of the target site.

This study aimed at investigating the suitability of a classical conditioning for the treatment of anomic disorder. In this study 12 patients suffering from pure anomia in the chronic stage of the disease underwent a word repetition training with a computerized telemedicine protocol. Each patient trained two word sets, one in a conditioned and the other in a non-conditioned training modality; a third non trained set served as control set.

This study will use a randomized controlled trial design to evaluate the effect of two evidence-based treatments for adults with mild Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The aim of the study is to help us better understand the effects of speech language therapy on communication abilities in individuals with PPA. Participants with a diagnosis of PPA and their actively-engaged care partners will be involved in the study for 12 months. Each participant will receive a laptop equipped with the necessary applications and features for the study. Participants will receive 5 evaluations and 15 speech therapy sessions with a licensed speech therapist, as well as access to Communication Bridge, a personalized web application to practice home exercises that reinforce treatment strategies. There are no costs to participate in this study.

Post-stroke aphasia (PSA), the partial or total loss of the ability to produce and/or understand language associated with stroke, is a highly prevalent and disabling disorder that negatively impacts the personal, social and working life of patients and families. Modern theory-based language therapies (LT) with proved efficacy in chronic PSA are brief (weeks), intensive, and oriented to specific domains (e.g., anomia). However, in order to maximize therapeutic benefits, it becomes essential to implement complementary strategies that boost gains in language, communication and behaviour and also to identify predictors of treatment response (demographics, anatomical) that enable to customize interventions adjusting them to each profile (linguistic deficits, brain structure and connectivity). Our group has repeatedly shown that LT combined with cognitive enhancing drugs (CED) (e.g., Donepezil and Memantine) are safe and promote better outcomes that when these interventions are administered separately. Moreover, non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (NIBS), such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), are also emerging as a promising treatment option for chronic PSA. However, is still unknown whether or not treatments that combine several biological strategies aid to improve outcomes further. Brain changes induced by these interventions and the premorbid characteristic of a "good responder" are also unknown. The aims of this clinical trial are: (1) Study the efficacy of combined treatments in a sample of patients with chronic PSA (n = 40); (2) Document with multimodal neuroimaging the functional and connectivity changes (neuroplasticity) promoted by these interventions; and (3) Identify linguistic, cognitive and behavioural variables that may predict outcomes for each intervention.

Aphasia is a language impairment caused by brain injury such as stroke that affects the ability to understand and express language, read and write due to damage in the language regions of the brain. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques like transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) have been found to improve aphasia treatment effects in post stroke patient populations such as improved naming abilities. However, the effect of tDCS on more functional, higher level language skills such as discourse production (i.e. story telling, giving instructions) has yet to be understood.Therefore the aim of this study is to determine the potential effectiveness of tDCS as an adjunct to speech and language therapy (SLT) to improve discourse speech production in people with post-stroke aphasia. It is hypothesised that SLT combined with tDCS will result in greater improvements in discourse language production compared to SLT on its own.

With the present RCT, the investigators aimed at finding an optimal protocol for the neurorehabilitation of chronic post-stroke aphasia by combining two promising methods, ILAT (Intensive language action therapy) and 1-Hz rTMS to the right-hemispheric homologue of the anterior language area of Broca (pars triangularis), thus taking advantage of recent research in speech and language sciences, neurorehabilitation and brain research.

The present parallel-group, single-center, blinded-assessment controlled trial seeks to explore the feasibility - in terms of high completion rates - and potential efficacy of intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction for treatment of post stroke depression in subacute aphasia. Apart from evidence of treatment feasibility, the primary hypothesis predicts significantly greater progress on self-report and clinician-rated measures of depression severity after (i) intensive communicative-pragmatic social interaction combined with standard care, compared to (ii) standard care alone.