Active clinical trials for "Aphasia"

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects first and foremost language abilities. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is slowly progressive decline in a single domain of cognition (e.g. language) not attributable to motor or sensory loss, without impediment of social or occupational function. MCI can be an early sign of neurodegenerative disease, or can be due to normal aging. When language is the prominent affected domain in MCI, the person may later meet criteria for PPA or may progress to the clinical syndrome of Alzheimer's dementia. Spelling, naming, and working memory (e.g. repetition) are among the language abilities affected early in the course of PPA or language-centered MCI, and different variants have distinct deficits in these domains. This research project investigates the behavioral and neuromodulatory effects of high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) during language therapy in PPA participants over time. Anodal HD-tDCS targeting the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) administered in combination with language therapy is expected to be more beneficial when compared to language therapy alone. It will 1) improve language performance or decrease rate of decline, 2) have better-sustained effects at 2 weeks and 2 months post-treatment, and 3) produce generalization to untrained language items and some other cognitive functions. Resting-state fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and volumetric data are also collected to investigate changes in functional brain connectivity associated with HD-tDCS in individuals with PPA. A better understanding of the therapeutic and neuromodulatory mechanisms of HD-tDCS as an adjunct to language therapy in PPA may have a significant impact on the development of effective therapies for PPA and MCI, and may offer insight into ways of impeding neurodegeneration that may improve patients' quality of life, as well as extend their ability to work and manage their affairs.

The study will focus on the impact of communal singing on patients with stroke and their personal caregivers. Forty post-stroke patients will be randomly assigned to two groups: the first group of 20 stroke survivors and their caregivers (up to 40 total participants) will receive 6 months (approximately 24 sessions) of music therapy. The second control groups of 20 stroke survivors and their caregivers will receive standard post-stroke care

The overall goal of this study is to evaluate whether stimulation of two brain areas alongside behavioral speech-language therapy increases connectivity to improve language functions in stroke-aphasia patients.

Aphasia is an acquired deficit following acute damage to the central nervous system that involves the difficulty or impossibility of understanding and formulating language. A typical disorder of non-fluent forms of aphasia is anomia. Anomia refers to the difficulty in finding words, in particular when trying to name objects and actions. According to the Embodied Cognition approach (EC), language is tightly connected to the motor system. In this view, language rehabilitation programs should stimulate language through the activation of the motor system. In this approach, since anomic deficits are often due to a weak link between the meaning of the word and its lemma, the Hebbs' principles of coincident and correlated learning can be exploited, i.e., by intensifying the synchronous activation of lexicon and semantics and connecting them with the motor counterpart. In this study, the investigators present an innovative training, based on the EC framework, in which they will make use of new technologies for anomia rehabilitation in post-stroke patients. Specifically, the researchers will use immersive 360° videos representing everyday actions displayed from the first-person point of view, experienced through a head-mounted display. The training will be administered 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The control group will watch standard videos representing the same actions recorded from the third-person perspective. Naming abilities will be tested before and after the training together with other cognitive and psychological measures. The investigators expect that the group who will undergo the 360° video-based training will show greater improvement of performance compared to the control group.

A stratified, parallel-group, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of remotely delivered START treatment to individuals with severe-to-moderate stroke (with recruitment focused on individuals with low SES) will be conducted. Subjects and assessors will be blinded to the condition making the experiment double blind. Specifically, subjects will be told that we are exploring a new therapy that using different sounds to improve therapy. Parallel group design will ensure that subjects in the Control group are unaware that their "sounds" are softer than the START group. Trainers may become aware that a loud sound is present thus a unique Assessor will evaluate clinical performance before and after training making the study double-blind. Fifty-four subjects will undergo baseline testing in the laboratory to establish their capacity for functional and expressive speech as well as their self-reported health-related quality of life (power analysis below). Next, subjects will participate in a high-frequency, word-picture verification/ auditory-repetition treatment, 2 hr/day for 5 consecutive days focusing on expression of words of functional significance (e.g., water, fall). Subjects will either receive training with START or without (Control). Subjects will be re-tested immediately following training as well as one-month post to assess retention. Aim 1 will evaluate capacity of START to enhance SLT outcomes by assessing the % change in clinical assessment of functional and expressive speech. Our preliminary data points to a robust response [details]. Aim 2 will focus on the capacity of these changes to 1) be retained and 2) impact subject's reported quality of life. NOTE: While we are planning in-person baseline, end, and retention testing, in response to COVID, we have established remote clinical screening using peer-reviewed validated techniques for WAB and ABA-2 (see Alternative Solutions). All preliminary data collected for this proposal were collected remotely via no-contact protocols.

Aphasia, or language impairment after a stroke, affects approximately 2 million people in the United States, with an estimated 180,000 new cases each year. The medical community cannot predict how well someone with aphasia will respond to treatment, as some people with aphasia are poor responders to intervention even when participating in empirically supported treatments. There is a strong likelihood that genetics play a role in language recovery after stroke, but very little research has been dedicated to investigating this link. This study will investigate whether two genes and cognitive abilities, such as memory, predict responsiveness to aphasia therapy for word-retrieval difficulties.

The purpose this study is to test the utility of pairing external neuromodulation with behavioral language treatment to boost therapy outcomes and to investigate the mechanisms associated with recovery. Because all PWA have word retrieval deficits, this project will test if greater language gains can be achieved by supplementing anomia intervention with excitatory brain stimulation to the left hemisphere and will evaluate associated functional brain changes to aid the optimization of neural reorganization to facilitate language processing.

After a stroke, many people experience a language impairment called aphasia. One of the most debilitating types of aphasia is non-fluent aphasia. Non-fluent aphasia is defined by significantly reduced speech production, with the speaker producing only a few words or even less. Speech entrainment therapy (SET) is a treatment that has been shown to increase fluency in people with non-fluent aphasia. The study looks to define the best dose of SET that leads to sustained improvements in spontaneous speech production. Participants who are eligible will undergo baseline language testing, an MRI, and will be randomized into one of 4 treatment groups: SET for 3 weeks, SET for 4.5 weeks, SET for 6 weeks, and no treatment (control group).

Aphasia is a language disorder caused by stroke and other acquired brain injuries that affects over two million people in the United States and which interferes with life participation and quality of life. Anomia (i.e., word- finding difficulty) is a primary frustration for people with aphasia. Picture-based naming treatments for anomia are widely used in aphasia rehabilitation, but current treatment approaches do not address the long-term retention of naming abilities and do not focus on using these naming abilities in daily life. The current research aims to evaluate novel anomia treatment approaches to improve long-term retention and generalization to everyday life. This study is one of two that are part of a larger grant. This record is for sub-study 2, which will evaluate the benefits of adaptive trial spacing.

The purpose of the study is to test whether low level electric stimulation, called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), on the part of the brain (i.e., pre-supplementary motor area) thought to aid in memory will improve verbal retrieval in civilian (non-military, non-veteran) participants with histories of traumatic brain injuries. The primary outcome measures are neuropsychological assessments of verbal retrieval, and the secondary measures are neuropsychological assessments of other cognitive abilities and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. Additionally, the study will examine the degree to which baseline assessments of cognition, concussion history, structural brain imaging, and EEG predict responses to treatment over time, both on assessments administered within the intervention period and at follow-up.