Active clinical trials for "Aphasia"

The purpose of this study is to find out how the language of people with Primary Progressive Aphasia is affected by Propranolol. Propranolol is not FDA approved for the treatment of Primary Progressive Aphasia. Propranolol is FDA approved for the treatment of heart conditions such as blood pressure. This research is being done because there are currently no drug treatment options for language impairments and anxiety often experienced by people with Primary Progressive Aphasia.

The goal of this study is to see if transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can be used to enhance language abilities in people with post-stroke aphasia. Participants will receive real and sham tACS in conjunction with various language tests. Researchers will compare the post-stroke aphasia group with aged matched controls to see if brain response to tACS differs between groups.

In the planned study, clinical and electrophysiological features of aphasia recovery in stroke patients are investigated.

The purpose of the study is to determine if speech therapy can be enhanced by Aerobic Exercise (AE). Investigators will use a single subject design to determine if aphasia therapy result in greater gains when combined with aerobic exercise.

Aphasia is a loss of language due to stroke or other brain injury. Word-finding in conversation is a universal and persistent difficulty in aphasia. While several techniques exist to improve word-finding in aphasia, it is unclear how the brain changes in response to behavioral therapy. In this study, persons with aphasia will receive behavioral therapy aimed at helping them to be more successful at finding words. Twenty therapy sessions will be provided in a 10-week period. Each therapy session will last about 2 hours and will include a variety of language tasks. Prior to beginning word-finding therapy, each participant will receive two fMRI scans, spaced 10 weeks apart. After finishing therapy, each participant will receive two additional fMRI scans, spaced 10 weeks apart. For a portion of the MRI scan, participants will complete language tasks. The purpose of these fMRI scans is to measure brain changes that may occur due to successful behavioral therapy. The hypotheses are as follows: First, that the behavioral therapy will improve word-finding as it has been shown to do in the past. Second, that the brain will change in a couple of different ways. It is expected that the network of regions that support word-finding will be more connected and work together more efficiently after therapy. It is also expected that the networks of regions that support other aspects of cognitive function, such as attention and executive function, will also be more connected and work together more efficiently.

This study investigates if electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback training is more beneficial than sham feedback training for the improvement of communication, anxiety, and sleep quality in individuals with aphasia. Half of the participants will receive active EEG neurofeedback sessions first, followed by sham feedback sessions in a crossover design. The other half of participants will undergo sham feedback sessions first, followed by active neurofeedback.

This study proposes to use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technique by which a very small electrical current (2 mA) is applied to the scalp, along side speech therapy in patients with subacute stroke and aphasia in order to enhance language recovery. Aphasic patients in an inpatient neurorehabilitation facility who have experienced a stroke between one week and three months prior to enrollment will be invited to participate. Participants will receive either real or sham tDCS to the left hemisphere of the brain for a minimum of 5 consecutive sessions to up-to a max of 10 sessions depending on the length of their rehab stay . Stimulation will be paired with with the patient's normal speech therapy schedule. Participant's language skills will be assessed at baseline and immediately after the last session of therapy in order to determine whether tDCS is associated with either transient or persistent improvement in language.

Every year, approximately 100,000 people are diagnosed with aphasia-a language disorder leading to substantial difficulties in their daily communication. Based on the observation that many people with aphasia can sing words that they otherwise cannot speak, melodic intonation therapy (MIT) was developed in the 1970s. Although recognized as a standard aphasia treatment, the neural mechanisms of MIT have been largely unexplored. Our first goal is to identify the active ingredient of the music intervention. Although rhythm has long been considered secondary to melody, recent evidence has challenged this notion by demonstrating that rhythm alone is sufficient enough to facilitate improvements in speech fluency for people with aphasia. To corroborate the positive role of rhythm, we will train aphasic patients to leverage "rhythmic groove" for sets of sentences/phrases delivered through a fun and engaging video gaming platform. This intervention emerges from the theoretical framework, built from neuroimaging data, that language processes heavily rely on neural resources within the sensorimotor and fronto-striatal circuits that subserve rhythm/timing processes. Our second goal is to characterize the neural plasticity associated with language recovery promoted by the novel rhythm-based therapy. We hypothesize that neuroplasticity will manifest itself as increased white matter tracts, presumably due to changes in myelination in either ipsilateral or contralateral (homologues) language areas. To effectively measure myelin white matter fraction (MWF) in candidate tracts, we will mainly use a patented Laplace-transformed relaxation MRI technique. Additionally, we will measure resting-state functional connectivity using BOLD (Blood Oxygen-Level Dependent) fMRI. Lastly, we will attempt to record cortical activity using fNIRS (functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy) during the pre-post behavioral assessments. Taken together, the proposed interdisciplinary research has theoretical, methodological, and clinical innovations and significance. This exploratory work will serve as a critical stepping stone toward unraveling the therapeutic component of music in neurological disorders and will provide evidence-based guidance to the clinicians and therapists.

ARTFL LEFFTDS Longitudinal Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (ALLFTD) represents the formalized integration of ARTFL (U54 NS092089; funded through 2019) and LEFFTDS (U01 AG045390; funded through 2019) as a single North American research consortium to study FTLD for 2019 and beyond.

The aim of this study is to create a repository of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data, including cognitive, linguistic, imaging and biofluid biological specimens, for neurodegenerative disease research and treatment.