Melodic-Intonation-Therapy and Speech-Repetition-Therapy for Patients With Non-fluent Aphasia

Summary

We are doing this clinical trial in order to evaluate two different treatments for non-fluent aphasia: Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) and Speech Repetition Therapy (SRT). MIT uses a simple form of singing, while SRT uses intensive repetition of a set of words and phrases. We want to see which intensive form of treatment is more effective in leading to an improvement in speech output compared to a no-therapy control period, and whether either treatment can cause changes in brain activity during speaking and changes in brain structure. We will use a technique known as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure blood flow changes in the brain and structural MRI that assess brain anatomy and connections between brain regions. We will use fMRI to assess brain activity while a patient speaks, sings, and hums. We will assess changes in brain activity and in brain structure by comparing scans done prior to treatment to scans obtained after treatment and we will also examine changes between treatment groups. We will correlate changes in brain activity and brain structure with changes in language test scores.

Conditions

• Aphasia
• Stroke
• Cerebrovascular Accident
• Apoplexy
• Cerebral Infarction

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Melodic Intonation Therapy

MIT emphasizes the prosody of speech through the use of slow, pitched vocalization (singing).

BEHAVIORAL

Speech-Repetition-Therapy

Speech-Reception-Therapy is an equally intensive, alternative verbal treatment method developed for this study.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

  collaborator NIH

• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Gottfried Schlaug, MD, PhD · Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center / Harvard Medical School

• Andrea Norton, BM · Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

21 Years

Max Age

80 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2008-02-29

Primary Completion

2020-05-31

Completion

2020-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations