Recruiting

Communicative Interaction

Sponsor:

Penn State University

Code:

NCT06266403

Conditions

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Structured Communicative Interaction

Clear Speech

Unstructured communicative interaction

Clear Speech Structured Communicative Interaction

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effect of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and age-matched speakers.

The question is, What are the effects of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with ALS?

Participants will read words and sentences while they are in a solo setting and interactive setting.

Conditions

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Study ID

NCT06266403

Start date

Nov 5, 2024

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Feb 28, 2029

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Feb 28, 2029

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18 - 70+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

Speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (PALS-people with ALS)

  • diagnosis of ALS following the revised EL Escorial criteria
  • no history of other neurological conditions (e.g., stroke)
  • no cognitive impairment assessed by Telephone Montreal Cognitive Assessment (mini MoCA)
  • detectable speech disturbance according to the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R)
  • the ability to produce single words
  • being a native speaker of American English (AE).

Age-matched Speakers

  • passing the remote hearing screening
  • having no known speech, language, or neurological disorders per self-report
  • no cognitive impairment assessed by Telephone Montreal Cognitive Assessment (mini MoCA)
  • being a functionally native monolingual speaker of American English.

Unfamiliar Interlocutors

  • passing the remote hearing screening
  • having no known speech, language or neurological disorders per self-report
  • being a native monolingual speaker of American English
  • having no experience communicating with people with dysarthria
  • being between the ages of 18 and 40.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None - if volunteer meets the inclusion criteria, then they will be enrolled

Study Design

Enrollment

300 participants

Anticipated

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Basic Science

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, age-matched speakers

People with ALS and age-matched speakers will participate in structured communicative interaction.

Interventions

Structured Communicative Interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. On each trial, one of the interlocutors will be randomly chosen to be the "speaker" and the other will be the "listener". Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

Clear Speech

PALS and age-matched speakers will read critical words consisting of target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net") in random order four times. These words will be embedded in the carrier phrase "Click on the \_\_\_ this time." Participations will be instructed to overenunciate the critical words.

Unstructured communicative interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.

Clear Speech Structured Communicative Interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and a typical, unfamiliar interlocutor or an age-matched speaker and a typical interlocutor, will work together. On each trial, one of the interlocutors will be randomly chosen to be the "speaker" and the other will be the "listener". Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. The speaker will be instructed to overenunciate the critical words. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

Primary outcome measure

  • Formant frequencies of speech sounds [ Time Frame: two 60 minute sessions ]
  • Intelligibility of recorded speech [ Time Frame: two 60 minute sessions ]
  • Syntactic properties [ Time Frame: One 60 minute session ]
  • Pragmatic Properties [ Time Frame: One 60 minute session ]
  • Duration of speech sounds [ Time Frame: two 60 minute sessions ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Anne Olmstead, Ph.D.

814-867-3373ajo150@psu.edu

Locations

Speech Core, Pennsylvania State University

Recruiting

University Park, Pennsylvania, United States, 16802

Contacts

Jimin Lee, PhD

814-867-3373jxl91@psu.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Penn State University

Last update posted

Aug 7, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Penn State University on 2026-08-07.