Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Language Comprehension
ConditionLanguage Disorders
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18+
SponsorUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham
About this trial
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.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
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
Disqualifiers
Age less than 18 years
Unable to competently perform control trials of the task
Trial design
Design model
Single group
Treatments tested in this trial
Sentence Type
BehavioralSubjects read different types of sentences (object-relative, subject -relative and control sentences) to observe how that sentence affects their intracranially recorded neural activity.
Direct brain stimulation
Other interventionOn 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.
Treatment groups
153 Participants
are divided into 1 treatment groupGroup A: Intracranial patientsExperimental treatment 2 interventions
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
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.
Time frame
Measured immediately after the intervention2
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.
Time frame
Outcomes will be measured immediately before the intervention3
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.
Time frame
Outcomes will be measured concomitant with the intervention4
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
Time frame
Outcomes will be measured immediately after the interventionSponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Lead sponsor
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov