Cerebellar Stimulation for Aphasia Rehabilitation
Johns Hopkins University
60 participants
Oct 25, 2021
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
The optimal site of neuromodulation for post-stroke aphasia has yet to be established. This study will investigate whether multiple sessions of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) boosts language therapy in helping people recover from aphasia as well as predict who is likely to respond to cerebellar tDCS.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria5
- Chronic ischemic or hemorrhagic left hemisphere stroke
- Fluent speaker of English by self-report
- Age 18 or older
- months post onset of stroke
- Diagnosis of aphasia and naming impairment using the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised
Exclusion Criteria10
- Lesion in the right cerebellum
- Previous neurological disorder (other than stroke) affecting the brain, or any other neurodegenerative disorder or psychiatric disorder
- Seizures during the previous 6 months
- Uncorrected visual loss or hearing loss by self-report
- Use of medications that lower the seizure threshold (e.g., methylphenidate)
- Use of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists (e.g., memantine)
- History of brain surgery or any metal in the head
- Severely impaired auditory comprehension (lower than 2 on the Comprehension subscore on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised)
- Severely limited verbal output (lower than 2 on the Spontaneous Speech rating scale on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised)
- Individuals with severe claustrophobia, cardiac pacemakers or ferromagnetic implants, and pregnant women will be excluded from the MRI portion of the study.
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Interventions
2 mA of cathodal tDCS is induced between two 5cm X 5cm saline soaked sponges where the cathode sponge is placed on the right cerebellum. Ramping up of the current to 2 mA occurs over 15-30 seconds to allow participants to habituate to the tingling sensation. The stimulation will be delivered at an intensity of 2 mA for a maximum of 25 minutes.
Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a treatment technique designed to improve lexical retrieval by increasing the level of activation within a semantic network. The treatment will proceed according to a series of steps including naming aloud the target picture, generating semantic features, naming aloud the target picture again, and generating a sentence using the target word.
2 mA of cathodal tDCS is induced between two 5cm X 5cm saline soaked sponges where the cathode sponge is placed on the right cerebellum. Ramping up of the current to 2 mA occurs over 15-30 seconds to allow participants to habituate to the tingling sensation. Then, the current will be ramped back down to 0 mA in the sham condition. Termination of the stimulation after the ramping up process is generally undetectable, and the brief duration of stimulation yields no functional effects.
Locations(1)
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NCT05093673