Imaging Speech in Neurotypical Adults and Individuals With Cerebellar Stroke

NCT06458153 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: STUDY230700831R01DC020963-01A1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this research study is to learn how the brain areas that plan and control movement interact with the areas responsible for hearing and perceiving speech in healthy adults and people who have had cerebellar strokes. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. 1.What regions of the brain's sensory systems show changes in their activity related to speech?
2. 2.To what extent do these regions help listeners detect and correct speech errors?
3. 3.What is the role of the cerebellum (a part of the brain in the back of the head) in these activities?

Conditions

Stroke; Cerebellum

Keywords

fmri; speech production; cerebellum; auditory-motor integration; speech motor control; neuroimaging

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) responses to self vs. externally generated speech

  The dependent variables (across voxels) are blood oxygenated level dependent fMRI measurements made during task performance. We will contrast measured activations in regions of interest for the LISTEN-SELF vs. PRODUCE and LISTEN-OTHER vs. PRODUCE conditions. Encoding models will predict activity in regions-of-interest (ROIs) based on a set of speech features.

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• BOLD responses related to pre-speech auditory modulation

  The dependent variables (across voxels) are blood oxygenated level dependent fMRI measurements made during task performance. We will contrast measured activations in regions of interest for responses to auditory stimuli across conditions (e.g., SPEAK, REHEARSE, PLAN, SILENT).

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• EEG responses to self vs. externally generated speech

  The dependent variables are evoked responses, aligned to sound onset, measured with EEG during task performance. We will contrast evoked responses across conditions (e.g., TALK, LISTEN).

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• BOLD responses to induced auditory errors

  The dependent variables (across voxels) are blood oxygenated level dependent fMRI measurements made during task performance. We will determine activations in regions of interest that correlate with applied perturbations during speech. We will also compare SPEAK vs. LISTEN activations in perturbed and unperturbed conditions.

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• BOLD responses during adaptation to auditory perturbations

  The dependent variables (across voxels) are blood oxygenated level dependent fMRI measurements made during task performance. We will contrast measured activations in regions of interest for responses during the HOLD and BASELINE phases of the adaptation paradigm. We will determine areas where activation is associated with changes in formant frequencies in early and late windows in speech recordings.

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• BOLD responses during learning of non-speech auditory motor targets

  The dependent variables (across voxels) are blood oxygenated level dependent fMRI measurements made during task performance. We will contrast measured activations in regions of interest for responses during PRESS trials across runs. We will contrast LISTEN vs. PRESS trials to measure motor induced sensory modulation.

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• BOLD responses to speech listening task

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• BOLD responses to silent articulation task

  One session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• Speech formant frequencies

  First session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• Spontaneous Speech Synchronization Index

  First session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

• Auditory acuity

  First session lasting 2-3 hours, within 12 months of enrollment

Study Arms (1)

Speech behavior and functional imaging

EXPERIMENTAL

Assessing the neural correlates of speaking-induced sensory modulation in all three cohorts using behavior and neuroimaging tasks in up to 6 sessions.

Behavioral: Neural responses to speech functional localizer; Behavioral: Neural responses to silent articulation; Behavioral: Neural responses to self vs. externally generated speech; Behavioral: Event-related potentials for speech; Behavioral: Neural responses to induced speech errors; Behavioral: Neural responses to sensory-motor adaptation; Behavioral: Speech production behaviors; Behavioral: Auditory acuity testing; Behavioral: Neural responses to learning a non-speech auditory motor behavior

Interventions

Neural responses to speech functional localizer BEHAVIORAL

Measuring speech-related brain activity using fMRI during a speech listening task.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Neural responses to silent articulation BEHAVIORAL

Measuring speech-related brain activity using fMRI during a silent articulation task.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Neural responses to self vs. externally generated speech BEHAVIORAL

Measuring speech-related brain activity using fMRI during self-generated vs. externally-generated speech.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Event-related potentials for speech BEHAVIORAL

Measuring electroencephalography (EEG) based evoked potentials for self vs. externally generated speech

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Neural responses to induced speech errors BEHAVIORAL

Measuring speech-related brain activity using fMRI during conditions that induce auditory speech errors.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Neural responses to sensory-motor adaptation BEHAVIORAL

Measuring brain activity using fMRI during a learning task with sustained altered auditory feedback.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Speech production behaviors BEHAVIORAL

Behavioral measurements of speech during reading passages and words

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Auditory acuity testing BEHAVIORAL

Measurements of auditory acuity during listening tasks.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Neural responses to learning a non-speech auditory motor behavior BEHAVIORAL

Mapping of brain areas using fMRI during learning of non-speech sound-evoking movements.

Speech behavior and functional imaging

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Cohort 1 (neurotypical adults):
• Age 18-49
• Right-handed
• Native English speaker
• Cohort 2 (people with cerebellar lesions):
• Age 18 or older
• Right-handed
• Native English speaker
• History of cerebellar stroke
• Cohort 3 (controls matched to Cohort 2)
• Age 18 or older
• Right-handed
• Native English speaker

You may not qualify if:

• Cohort 1 (neurotypical adults):
• Presence of MRI risk factors: metal and/or electromagnetic devices (e.g., pacemakers, neurostimulators) in the body, previous shrapnel injuries, use of an intrauterine device containing metal, claustrophobia, pregnant or possibly pregnant
• History of neurological / neurodegenerative disease or severe brain injury (e.g., stroke or severe traumatic brain injury)
• Hearing loss, defined by pure tone thresholds \>25 decibels (dB) hearing level (HL) at octave frequencies between 250-8000 Hz
• Clinical diagnosis and/or treatment for schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders
• Clinical diagnosis and/or treatment for neurocognitive disorders (e.g., dementia, delirium)
• Presence of a severe and unmanaged, clinically diagnosed attention disorder
• Clinically diagnosed with or treated for a speech, language, or hearing disorder
• Head circumference greater than 60cm or weight greater than 300 pounds
• History of severe claustrophobia
• Currently pregnant
• Cohort 2 (people with cerebellar lesions):
• Presence of MRI risk factors: metal and/or electromagnetic devices (e.g., pacemakers, neurostimulators) in the body, previous shrapnel injuries, use of an intrauterine device containing metal, claustrophobia, pregnant or possibly pregnant
• History of neurological / neurodegenerative disease or severe brain injury other than stroke
• Hearing loss, defined by pure tone thresholds \>50 dB HL at octave frequencies between 250-4000 Hz

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pittsburgh: lead
• Northwestern University: collaborator
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15260, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Stroke

Interventions

Evoked Potentials

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Cerebrovascular Disorders; Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Vascular Diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Cortical Excitability; Electrophysiological Phenomena; Physiological Phenomena; Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Study Officials

• Jason W Bohland, Ph.D.

  University of Pittsburgh

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Jason W Bohland, Ph.D.

CONTACT

412-383-3416; j.bohland@pitt.edu

Alexander Ocampo, B.A.

CONTACT

amo104@pitt.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

Model Details: The single group model involves assessing the neural basis of multiple behavioral tasks in three cohorts. Cohort 1 is neurotypical adults. Cohort 2 is people with post-stroke cerebellar lesions. Cohort 3 is a group of control participants that will be matched to Cohort 2. The behavioral interventions are overlapping between cohorts, though Cohort 1 will complete additional sessions.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 3, 2024
• First Posted: June 13, 2024
• Study Start: May 27, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2028
• Last Updated: June 13, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data will be made available as soon as possible or at the time of associated publication. The duration of preservation and sharing of the data will be a minimum of 7 years after the end of study funding.
• Access Criteria: Individual-level raw MRI and EEG datasets (along with metadata necessary to replicate analyses) will be shared via OpenNeuro.org, an open access repository for sharing neuroimaging data in Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) format. Where possible, behavioral and audio data will also be shared on OpenNeuro.org, made available in a different free repository (Open Science Framework), or made available upon request.

Locations

US (1)