Recruiting

Vowel Space Expansion

Sponsor:

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Code:

NCT06233513

Conditions

Speech

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Exp 3 Speaking Task

Study Details

Brief summary:

The purpose of this research study is to understand how the brain processes and controls speech in healthy people. The investigators are doing this research because it will help identify the mechanisms that allow people to perceive their own speech errors and to learn new speech sounds. 117 participants will be enrolled into this part of the study and can expect to be on study between 1 day (Experiment 1) and 4 weeks (Experiment 2).

Conditions

Speech

Study ID

NCT06233513

Start date

Feb 15, 2024

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Oct, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Oct, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English-speaking adults
  • normal hearing and speech
  • no history of stroke or neurological conditions

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Native language other than English
  • Any neurological disorders other than the disorder of interest
  • Any history of hearing disorders
  • Uncorrected vision problems that prevent participants from seeing visually-presented stimuli
  • Significant cognitive impairments that prevent participants from carrying out the task or from giving informed consent
  • Vulnerable populations (minors and prisoners)

Study Design

Enrollment

117 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Healthy Adult Speakers

healthy adult participants across the lifespan in three groups:18-35, 36-55, and 56+

Interventions

Exp 3 Speaking Task

Participant will sit in front of a computer screen in a quiet room and to produce speech based on what is on the screen. Participant may see real words or nonsense words to read. Investigators may play sounds through headphones and ask the participant to repeat them. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. This task takes about one hour to complete.

Primary outcome measure

  • Average Vowel Spacing (AVS) Measured as the Mean of Pairwise Formant Distances Between Vowels [ Time Frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2) ]
  • Quadrilateral Vowel Space Area (qVSA) [ Time Frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2) ]
  • Intelligibility measured by Percent of words correctly identified by 5 independent transcribers [ Time Frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2) ]
  • Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua [ Time Frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2) ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Carrie Niziolek, PhD

608-890-0192cniziolek@wisc.edu

Locations

University of Wisconsin

Recruiting

Madison, Wisconsin, United States, 53705

Contacts

Carrie Niziolek, PhD

608-890-0192cniziolek@wisc.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Last update posted

Jul 30, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Keywords

  • speech motor control
  • vocal learning

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Wisconsin, Madison on 2026-07-30.