NCT04204356

The Effect of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation on Language Production in Post-stroke Aphasia

The Effect of Speech and Language Therapy With and Without Transcranial Direct-current Stimulation on Discourse Production in People With Post-stroke Aphasia: a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 6 (actual)
• Sponsor: King's College London · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Aphasia is a language impairment caused by brain injury such as stroke that affects the ability to understand and express language, read and write due to damage in the language regions of the brain. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques like transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) have been found to improve aphasia treatment effects in post stroke patient populations such as improved naming abilities. However, the effect of tDCS on more functional, higher level language skills such as discourse production (i.e. story telling, giving instructions) has yet to be understood.Therefore the aim of this study is to determine the potential effectiveness of tDCS as an adjunct to speech and language therapy (SLT) to improve discourse speech production in people with post-stroke aphasia. It is hypothesised that SLT combined with tDCS will result in greater improvements in discourse language production compared to SLT on its own.

Conditions

• Aphasia
• Stroke
• Language Disorders

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Language treatment for improving discourse production	All participants will receive a 6-week block of language treatment for improving verb retrieval in discourse production by a professional speech and language therapist. The treatment goals for this block of treatment are to 1) improve verb retrieval and language quantity and complexity in discourse production 2) improve functional communication skills and; 3) improve quality of life and psychological state in people with post-stroke chronic aphasia.
DEVICE	Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)	Transcranial direct-current stimulation is a non-invasive brain stimulation method that can modify spontaneous cortical activity in targeted brain regions. Anodal tDCS delivered through a positively charged electrode has been found to increase cortical excitability in a targeted brain region. The use of tDCS as an adjunct to speech and language therapy has been found to improve aphasia treatment effects in post stroke patient populations.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-11-25
• Primary completion: 2020-08-28
• Completion: 2020-11-05
• First posted: 2019-12-18
• Last updated: 2021-02-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom