NCT02840396

Effect of rTMS of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex on Language Production in Healthy Participants

Role of Executive Function in Language: an Experimental and Clinical Approach With Application to Mother Language and Second Language

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 22 (actual)
• Sponsor: Jean-Marie Annoni · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on language production.

Detailed description

Background: Several studies investigating healthy or clinical populations have shown that (r)TMS applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has an effect on language-related processes such as verbal working memory (Osaka et al., 2007), sentence comprehension (Cotelli et al., 2011) and language switching (Holtzheimer et al., 2005, Nardone et al., 2011). Clinical observations and neuroimaging studies seem to confirm the role of executive functions and frontal structures in language processing in monolingual and bilingual subjects (e.g. Fabbro et al., 2000, Abutalebi \& Green 2007). However, only few studies investigated the effects of modulation of cognitive control-networks on lexical access. Aim and procedure: The study will investigate the role of the DLPFC and executive functioning in L1 and L2 language processing. The core question is whether rTMS over the DLPFC will influence lexical access and language production. Each participant will take part in two sessions: 1. rTMS session 2. Sham rTMS session. After the application of rTMS/Sham rTMS, the participants will conduct two language tasks (translation, picture naming) and a non-verbal task, while the EEG is recorded.

Conditions

• Language

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	rTMS	repetitive TMS (rTMS) can lead to temporary increases or decreases (depending on the protocol used) in excitability of the targeted area. This change in excitability has been shown to last beyond the duration of the stimulation.
DEVICE	Sham rTMS	Sham rTMS (or placebo rTMS) refers to a control condition in which no physiological effect on the targeted cortical region occurs.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-03-01
• Primary completion: 2017-06-01
• Completion: 2017-07-01
• First posted: 2016-07-21
• Last updated: 2019-10-09

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Switzerland