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rTMS and Multi-Modality Aphasia Therapy for Post-Stroke Aphasia

NCT04901156 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 20

Last updated 2023-09-13

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Many stroke survivors experience aphasia, a loss or impairment of language affecting the production or understanding of speech. One common type of aphasia is known as non-fluent aphasia. Patients with non-fluent aphasia have difficulty formulating grammatical sentences, often producing short word fragments despite having a good understanding of what others are trying to communicate to them. Speech language pathologists (SLPs) play a central role rehabilitating persons with aphasia and administer therapy in an attempt to improve communication skills. Despite standard therapy, approximately 50% of individuals who experience aphasia acutely continue to have language deficits more than 6 months post-stroke.

In most people, Broca's area is dominant in the left side of the brain. Following a left-sided stroke, the right-sided homologue of Broca's area (the pars triangularis), may adopt language function. Unfortunately, reorganizing language to the right side of the brain seems to be less effective than restoring function to the left hemisphere. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a form of non-invasive brain stimulation, can be used to suppress activity of specific regions in the right side of the brain to promote recovery of function in the perilesional area. Despite preliminary success in existing studies using rTMS in post-stroke aphasia, there is much work to be done to better understand the mechanisms underlying recovery. Responses to rTMS have been positive, yet heterogenous, which may be related to timing of treatments following stroke.

Conditions

Interventions

DEVICE

1Hz inhibitory rTMS

20 minutes of 1Hz (1200 pulses) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied by Magstim Rapid 2 stimulator equipped with an airfilm figure-8 coil

BEHAVIORAL

Multi-Modality Aphasia Therapy (M-MAT)

Participants receive 3.5 hours of intensive speech therapy in small groups delivered by a blinded speech language pathologist and therapy assistant. The objective of M-MAT is to improve word production through shaping of responses (ie. Gradually increasing complexity of spoken targets towards eventual mastery) and social-mediated repetitive practice. Therapists use game-based interactive tasks and rich multi-modal cueing (gestures, written words, drawing, reading words) to improve spoken production and oral communication.

DEVICE

1Hz sham rTMS

20 minutes of 1Hz (1200 pulses) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) applied by Magstim Rapid 2 stimulator equipped with an airfilm figure-8 sham coil.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • University of Calgary

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2018-04-01
Primary Completion
2020-01-31
Completion
2020-01-31

Countries

  • Canada

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04901156 on ClinicalTrials.gov