Behavioral and Neural Characteristics of Adaptive Speech Motor Control

Summary

This study meets the NIH definition of a clinical trial, but is not a treatment study. Instead, the goal of this study is to investigate how hearing ourselves speak affects the planning and execution of speech movements. The study investigates this topic in both typical speakers and in patients with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) implants. The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Does the way we hear our own speech while talking affect future speech movements?
* Can the speech of DBS patients reveal which brain areas are involved in adjusting speech movements? Participants will read words, sentences, or series of random syllables from a computer monitor while their speech is being recorded. For some participants, an electrode cap is also used to record brain activity during these tasks. And for DBS patients, the tasks will be performed with the stimulator ON and with the stimulator OFF.

Conditions

• Speech

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Auditory feedback perturbation during speech

The intervention consists of manipulating real-time auditory feedback during speech production. In our lab, such feedback perturbations can be implemented with either a stand-alone digital vocal processor (a device commonly used by singers and the music industry) or with software-based signal processing routines (see Equipment section for details). Note that the study does not investigate the efficacy of these hardware or software methods to induce behavioral change in subjects' speech. Rather, the study addresses basic experimental questions regarding the general role of auditory feedback in the central nervous system's control of articulatory speech movements.

BEHAVIORAL

Visual feedback perturbation during reaching

The intervention consists of manipulating real-time visual feedback during upper limb reaching movements. In our lab, such feedback perturbations can be implemented with a virtual reality display system.

OTHER

DBS stimulation ON/OFF

Patients who have been previously implanted with a DBS stimulator for their clinical care will be tested in two speech motor learning tasks with the stimulation ON and with the stimulation OFF. Note that (1) patients routinely turn the stimulation OFF and back ON (examples are, for some patients, to sleep, to save battery, etc), and (2) we are not in any way evaluating the stimulator itself or its clinical effectiveness but only whether or not two forms of speech motor learning (adaptation to auditory feedback perturbation and speech sequence learning) are affected differently by having the stimulation ON or OFF. implant ON/OFF prior to participation in the speech auditory-motor learning tasks and speech sequence learning tasks. This intervention can be implemented by the subject themselves as all patients have a hand- held controlled that they use to switch stimulation ON/OFF.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

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

  collaborator NIH

• University of Washington

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ludo Max, Ph.D. · University of Washington

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

4 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-01-01

Primary Completion

2027-12-31

Completion

2027-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations