Word Retrieval in the Wild in People With Post-Stroke Aphasia

Summary

People with post-stroke aphasia (PWA) suffer from anomia, a condition where they know what they want to say but cannot retrieve the words. For PWA, word retrieval changes moment-to-moment, leading to diminished motivation to participate in conversations and disengagement from social interactions. In the real world, anomia variability and severity are compounded by contextual factors of communication exchanges (noise, dual-tasking). Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) involves in-situ measurement of a behavior over time during everyday life. EMA has promise for capturing real-world anomia, yet EMA methods have not been tested in PWA. Therefore, the aims of this pilot study are to (1) determine the relative feasibility of two types of smartwatch-delivered EMA (traditional-EMA and micro-EMA) in PWA and (2) determine the extent to which patient-specific factors relate to feasibility. Twenty PWA will be recruited and randomly assigned to either traditional-EMA or micro-EMA conditions. To target in-situ anomia, PWA will complete 36 picture-naming trials/day for three weeks, delivered either as a single trial 36 times per day (micro-EMA) or in four sets of nine trials/set per day (traditional-EMA). Due to the "at-a-glance" single trial delivery of micro-EMA, the investigators hypothesize that PWA in the micro-EMA condition will demonstrate better protocol adherence than PWA in the traditional-EMA condition. Older age, more severe cognitive-linguistic deficits, and greater discomfort with technology will be related to poorer compliance, lower completion, greater perceived burden, and lower intelligibility of naming audio recordings. This bench-to-bedside research will begin a translational path to implement EMA/micro-EMA into routine assessment of aphasia.

Conditions

• Aphasia, Acquired

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Traditional EMA

Participants will wear a smartwatch for three weeks. Throughout the day (10am-8pm), the watch will vibrate and a written alert will appear on the screen asking participants if they are ready to name some/a picture(s). Once the picture appears, the participant will attempt to name the picture aloud while the watch records audio. The participants will have up to five seconds to name the picture before a "Thank You!" screen appears. In this arm, participants will name 9 pictures back-to-back four times/day.

BEHAVIORAL

Micro-Interaction EMA

Participants will wear a smartwatch for three weeks. Throughout the day (10am-8pm), the watch will vibrate and a written alert will appear on the screen asking participants if they are ready to name some/a picture(s). Once the picture appears, the participant will attempt to name the picture aloud while the watch records audio. The participants will have up to five seconds to name the picture before a "Thank You!" screen appears. In this arm, participants will name one picture at a time, 36 times/day.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

  collaborator NIH

• Northeastern University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Erin L Meier, PhD · Northeastern University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

89 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-12-19

Primary Completion

2024-01-31

Completion

2024-01-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations