Recruiting

Observational Study

Sponsor:

Boston University Charles River Campus

Code:

NCT02916524

Conditions

Aphasia

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)

Study Details

Brief summary:

The purpose of this investigation is to implement a computational model that can predict and optimize training and cross-language generalization patterns for bilingual persons with aphasia (BPA). The proposed work will determine the best possible treatment program for each individual patient even before they are rehabilitated. In addition, the computational model allows specification of variables such as age of acquisition, language exposure/proficiency, impairment and their systematic influence on a range of language rehabilitation outcomes.

Conditions

Aphasia

Study ID

NCT02916524

Start date

Apr 20, 2018

Status verified date

Apr, 2021

Completion date

Jul 31, 2023

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul 31, 2021

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Any number of years of education
  • Bilingual: speaking both Spanish and English (or Chinese and English) with any degree of language proficiency prior to stroke
  • Aphasia secondary to a left-hemisphere stroke (diagnosed by a neurologist on the basis of clinical CT/MRI imaging or medical reports)
  • Aphasia resulting from stroke or dementia
  • Naming deficits must be present with concurrent lexical/semantic impairment
  • Visual and auditory acuity sufficient for all assessment and treatment procedures
  • Ability to understand study and follow study procedures for the entire length of the study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Premorbid history of speech/language disorder
  • Proficient in more than just Spanish and English (or Chinese and English)
  • Overt, behaviorally noticeable, attentional limitations that interfere with completing the experimental tasks
  • Active medical disease that may compromise participation (e.g., cancer undergoing acute treatment, unstable diabetes, renal or hepatic insufficiency, fluctuating systemic immunological disease such as systemic lupus erythematosis, etc.)
  • Currently taking medications that are known to exert significant effects on cognitive processes, such as neuroleptics, steroids, anticholinesterase inhibitors, etc.
  • Current drug or alcohol use or dependence that would interfere with adherence to study requirements, in the opinion of the principal investigator
  • Inability or unwillingness of individual to give written informed consent
  • Diagnosed with mental illness other than active depression
  • Neurological condition other than that which resulted in aphasia

Study Design

Enrollment

48 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Model-based

Semantic Feature Analysis training will be provided in the language that was selected by the computational model.

active comparator: Model-opposite

Semantic Feature Analysis training will be provided in the language opposite to that which was selected by the computational model.

no intervention: Sub-Study: Computational Modeling for Bilingual Dementia and Semantic Decline

This is a sub-study aimed at building a computational model to simulate bilingual dementia and semantic decline.

Interventions

Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA)

SFA training entails having the speech-language pathologist (SLP) guide the participant through generation of pertinent semantic features for pictured treatment items (e.g., category membership, physical description, location of item in context, action associated with item). Treatment is applied to a set of items in the context of single-subject, multiple baseline designs so that replication of treatment effects could be evaluated within and across participants. Treatment will be administered two times per week until prescribed accuracy levels were met during treatment probes or a maximum number of treatment sessions was completed.

Primary outcome measure

  • Word Retrieval Accuracy in both languages [ Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 10 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Nishaat Mukadam, MA

617-353-2706mukadamn@bu.edu

Locations

San Francisco State University

Recruiting

San Francisco, California, United States, 94132

Contacts

Teresa Gray, Ph.D

teresag@sfsu.edu

Boston University Sargent College

Recruiting

Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215

Contacts

Swathi Kiran, PhD

617-358-5478kirans@bu.edu

Nishaat Mukadam, MA

617-353-2706mukadamn@bu.edu

Principal Investigator:

Swathi Kiran, PhD

Austin Speech Labs

Recruiting

Austin, Texas, United States, 78757

Contacts

Shilpa Shamapant, M.S., M.A. CCC/SLP

shilpa@austinspeechlabs.org

More Information

Sponsor

Boston University Charles River Campus

Last update posted

Apr 19, 2021

Last verified

Apr, 2021

Keywords

  • Aphasia
  • Bilingualism
  • Language therapy
  • Rehabilitation of speech and language disorders
  • Speech-language pathology

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Boston University Charles River Campus on 2021-04-19.