Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Language Comprehension

NCT05283265 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: IRB-300008888K01DC019165
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 153
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

First, in a recording-only self-paced reading experiment, patients with epilepsy undergoing intracranial monitoring for clinical purposes will read or listen to sentences presented to them one word at time while the investigators simultaneously record neural activity through intracranial electrodes that are implanted for clinical purposes (see subject populations). At the end of the sentence, the subjects have to indicate how they comprehended the sentence by selecting which of several pictures matches the sentence they just read. Behavioral measures that the investigators record and analyze are their response times to advance to each next word in the sentence, and which picture they chose for each sentence. These behavioral measures are compared against the neural activity simultaneously recorded as they are made. Then, in a later session, the same participants will participate in a task-related stimulation experiment. This follows the exact same design as the recording-only reading experiment, the only difference is that on some trials, at controlled moments during the sentence presentation intracranial electrical stimulation is delivered through adjacent intracranial electrode contacts. The investigators will examine the effect of this stimulation on the subjects comprehension of the sentences measured by their behavior, and on the simultaneously recorded neural activity.

Conditions

Language Disorders

Keywords

Neurophysiological; Language Comprehension; Direct brain stimulation; Self-paced reading

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (7)

• Behavioral Response- Picture Choice

  The investigators will observe which picture the participant chooses at the end of each trial. The participant's choice will be measured by a touch screen that the patient touches to make their choice. The unit of measurement is the percentage of trials per condition studied in which participants choose the correct picture, versus the percentage of trials per condition studied in which participants choose the picture that reflects a patient-agent error (which reflects incorrect assignment of the patient versus agent roles of the nouns in the sentence), versus the percentage of trials per condition studied in which participants choose the picture that reflects a complement error (which reflects that the subjects mistakenly applied an adjective to the wrong noun in the sentence), versus the percentage of trials per condition studied in which participants choose the picture that reflects both a patient-agent and a complement error.

  Measured immediately after the intervention

• Behavioral Response - Self-paced word response time for words presented before electrical stimulation

  While subjects perform self-paced reading experiments, this is the amount of time they spend on each word of the sentence before moving on to the next word of the sentence.

  Outcomes will be measured immediately before the intervention

• Behavioral Response - Self-paced word response time for words presented concomitant with electrical stimulation

  While subjects perform self-paced reading experiments, this is the amount of time they spend on each word of the sentence before moving on to the next word of the sentence.

  Outcomes will be measured concomitant with the intervention

• Behavioral Response - Self-paced word response time for words presented after electrical stimulation

  While subjects perform self-paced reading experiments, this is the amount of time they spend on each word of the sentence before moving on to the next word of the sentence, for words presented after electrical stimulation

  Outcomes will be measured immediately after the intervention

• Neural activation before electrical stimulation

  With the electrodes implanted in the patient as a standard of care, the investigators will measure the neural activation at each electrode as assessed by the high gamma power present in that recorded channel

  Outcomes will be measured immediately before the intervention

• Neural activation concomitant with electrical stimulation

  With the electrodes implanted in the patient as a standard of care, the investigators will measure the neural activation at each electrode as assessed by the high gamma power present in that recorded channel

  Outcomes will be measured concomitant with the intervention

• Neural activation after electrical stimulation

  With the electrodes implanted in the patient as a standard of care, the investigators will measure the neural activation at each electrode as assessed by the high gamma power present in that recorded channel

  Outcomes will be measured immediately after the intervention

Study Arms (1)

Intracranial patients

EXPERIMENTAL

All participants with epilepsy undergoing intracranial monitoring for clinical purposes will be approached to participate in an experiment that is recording-only and an experiment that involves stimulation with simultaneous recording.

Behavioral: Sentence Type; Other: Direct brain stimulation

Interventions

Sentence Type BEHAVIORAL

Subjects read different types of sentences (object-relative, subject -relative and control sentences) to observe how that sentence affects their intracranially recorded neural activity.

Intracranial patients

Direct brain stimulation OTHER

On some trials the investigators will apply intracranial electrical current through the electrodes implanted in the participants and observe the effect this has on their behavior (which picture they choose at the end of the trial) and the effect this has on their neural activity that the investigators record simultaneously through-out the experiment.

Also known as: Intracranial stimulation

Intracranial patients

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Age 18 and older
• Undergoing standard of care stereo Electro Encephalogram (sEEG) or Electro-Corticogram (ECoG) monitoring
• Able to competently perform control trials of the task

You may not qualify if:

• Age less than 18 years
• Unable to competently perform control trials of the task

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Alabama at Birmingham: lead
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital

Birmingham, Alabama, 35294, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (12)

• Nelson MJ, El Karoui I, Giber K, Yang X, Cohen L, Koopman H, Cash SS, Naccache L, Hale JT, Pallier C, Dehaene S. Neurophysiological dynamics of phrase-structure building during sentence processing. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 May 2;114(18):E3669-E3678. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1701590114. Epub 2017 Apr 17.

  PMID: 28416691 BACKGROUND

• Fedorenko E, Scott TL, Brunner P, Coon WG, Pritchett B, Schalk G, Kanwisher N. Neural correlate of the construction of sentence meaning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Oct 11;113(41):E6256-E6262. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1612132113. Epub 2016 Sep 26.

  PMID: 27671642 BACKGROUND

• Manning JR, Jacobs J, Fried I, Kahana MJ. Broadband shifts in local field potential power spectra are correlated with single-neuron spiking in humans. J Neurosci. 2009 Oct 28;29(43):13613-20. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2041-09.2009.

  PMID: 19864573 BACKGROUND

• King JR, Dehaene S. Characterizing the dynamics of mental representations: the temporal generalization method. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Apr;18(4):203-10. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.01.002. Epub 2014 Mar 2.

  PMID: 24593982 BACKGROUND

• De Ridder D, Perera S, Vanneste S. State of the Art: Novel Applications for Cortical Stimulation. Neuromodulation. 2017 Apr;20(3):206-214. doi: 10.1111/ner.12593. Epub 2017 Mar 28.

  PMID: 28371170 BACKGROUND

• Pallier C, Devauchelle AD, Dehaene S. Cortical representation of the constituent structure of sentences. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Feb 8;108(6):2522-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1018711108. Epub 2011 Jan 11.

  PMID: 21224415 BACKGROUND

• Miller KJ, Sorensen LB, Ojemann JG, den Nijs M. Power-law scaling in the brain surface electric potential. PLoS Comput Biol. 2009 Dec;5(12):e1000609. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000609. Epub 2009 Dec 18.

  PMID: 20019800 BACKGROUND

• Ray S, Maunsell JH. Different origins of gamma rhythm and high-gamma activity in macaque visual cortex. PLoS Biol. 2011 Apr;9(4):e1000610. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000610. Epub 2011 Apr 12.

  PMID: 21532743 BACKGROUND

• Mesulam MM, Wieneke C, Hurley R, Rademaker A, Thompson CK, Weintraub S, Rogalski EJ. Words and objects at the tip of the left temporal lobe in primary progressive aphasia. Brain. 2013 Feb;136(Pt 2):601-18. doi: 10.1093/brain/aws336. Epub 2013 Jan 29.

  PMID: 23361063 BACKGROUND

• Keller CJ, Honey CJ, Megevand P, Entz L, Ulbert I, Mehta AD. Mapping human brain networks with cortico-cortical evoked potentials. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2014 Oct 5;369(1653):20130528. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0528.

  PMID: 25180306 BACKGROUND

• Cuello Oderiz C, von Ellenrieder N, Dubeau F, Eisenberg A, Gotman J, Hall J, Hincapie AS, Hoffmann D, Job AS, Khoo HM, Minotti L, Olivier A, Kahane P, Frauscher B. Association of Cortical Stimulation-Induced Seizure With Surgical Outcome in Patients With Focal Drug-Resistant Epilepsy. JAMA Neurol. 2019 Sep 1;76(9):1070-1078. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.1464.

  PMID: 31180505 BACKGROUND

• Goldstein HE, Smith EH, Gross RE, Jobst BC, Lega BC, Sperling MR, Worrell GA, Zaghloul KA, Wanda PA, Kahana MJ, Rizzuto DS, Schevon CA, McKhann GM, Sheth SA. Risk of seizures induced by intracranial research stimulation: analysis of 770 stimulation sessions. J Neural Eng. 2019 Nov 11;16(6):066039. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ab4365.

  PMID: 31509808 BACKGROUND

Related Links

• Syntactic structures
• Uncommon Understanding (Classic Edition): Development and disorders of language comprehension in children
• Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models
• Support-vector networks

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Language Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Communication Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Matthew Nelson, PhD

  The University of Alabama at Birmingham

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Matthew Nelson, PhD

CONTACT

2059346717; matthewnelson@uabmc.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Assistant Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 9, 2022
• First Posted: March 16, 2022
• Study Start: April 8, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): October 8, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): October 8, 2026
• Last Updated: March 11, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, CSR, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data will be made available for a period of 10 years starting 6 months after publication.
• Access Criteria: All researchers who seek data will be asked to commit to protect privacy and confidentiality, secure the data using appropriate computer technology, refrain from redistributing data to third parties, and destroy or return the data after completion of analyses. The PI will review data sharing requests. Researchers requesting data may be asked to submit in writing a signed statement affirming their commitment to protect privacy and confidentiality.

Locations

US (1)