Recruiting

tACS

Sponsor:

Medical College of Wisconsin

Code:

NCT06048159

Conditions

Stroke

Aphasia

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

HD-tACS

Sham HD-tACS

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study will assess the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on language recovery after stroke.

Conditions

Stroke

Aphasia

Study ID

NCT06048159

Start date

Nov 6, 2023

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Jan, 2033

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jan, 2033

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Diagnosed with left hemisphere stroke/aphasia
  • Consent date >= 1 month after stroke onset
  • Fluent in English
  • 18 years of age or older

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Severe cognitive, auditory or visual impairments that would preclude cognitive and language testing
  • Presence of major untreated or unstable psychiatric disease
  • A chronic medical condition that is not treated or is unstable
  • The presence of cardiac stimulators or pacemakers
  • Contraindications to MRI or tACS, e.g. patients with metallic implants, and/or history of skull fractures, pregnancy, skin diseases
  • History of ongoing or unmanaged seizures
  • History of dyslexia or other developmental learning disabilities

Study Design

Enrollment

120 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: High Definition tACS with Short-term Memory Focused Speech Therapy

High-Definition-tACS will be delivered via a battery operated alternating current stimulator (Soterix) using two 3x1 center-surround montages.The current is turned on and increased in a ramplike fashion over approximately 30 seconds. Participants will undergo tACS stimulation for 20-minutes with 2 milliampere (mA) peak-to-peak intensity. Stimulation will be maintained no longer than 20 minutes. This will be paired with short-term memory focused speech therapy.

sham comparator: Sham-High Definition tACS with Short-term Memory Focused Speech Therapy

High-Definition-tACS will be delivered via a battery operated alternating current stimulator (Soterix) using two 3x1 center-surround montages. The current is turned on and increased in a ramplike fashion for 10 to 30 seconds and then ramped down. In this way, the participants experience the same initial sensations (mild tingling) as the active tACS groups. This will be paired with short-term memory focused speech therapy.

Interventions

HD-tACS

High definition tACS will be applied during speech therapy.

Sham HD-tACS

Sham high definition tACS will be applied during speech therapy.

Primary outcome measure

  • Accuracy on a phonological STM task [ Time Frame: Upon the completion of therapy cycle (a cycle consists of 10 intervention days) and 10 weeks post ]
  • fMRI measures of language network activation after tACS [ Time Frame: Upon the completion of therapy cycle (a cycle consists of 10 intervention days) and 10 weeks post ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Sidney E Schoenrock, MA

414-955-7579sschoenrock@mcw.edu

Priyanka Shah-Basak, PhD

414-955-5752prishah@mcw.edu

Locations

Medical College of Wisconsin

Recruiting

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, 53226

Contacts

Sidney E Schoenrock, MA

414-955-7579sschoenrock@mcw.edu

Priyanka Shah-Basak, PhD

414-955-5752prishah@mcw.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Medical College of Wisconsin

Last update posted

Jul 10, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-08. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Medical College of Wisconsin on 2026-07-10.