tACS to Enhance Language Abilities
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-85
SponsorUniversity of Pennsylvania
About this trial
The goal of this study is to see if transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can be used to enhance language abilities in people with post-stroke aphasia. Participants will receive real and sham tACS in conjunction with various language tests. Researchers will compare the post-stroke aphasia group with aged matched controls to see if brain response to tACS differs between groups.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Presence of aphasia
Suffered a single, left hemisphere stroke
Stroke ≥6 months old (chronic) at the time of enrollment
Right-handedness
Disqualifiers
Inability to understand the nature of the study
Marked naming impairment
Impaired non-verbal, conceptual processing
History of significant medical or neurological disorder (other than stroke)
Trial design
Design model
Crossover
Treatments tested in this trial
Active transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS)
DeviceTranscranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) is a device that applies a low-intensity electrical current to the brain through electrodes on the scalp.
Treatment groups
120 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: real-tACSActive comparator 1 intervention
Group B: sham-tACSPlacebo comparator 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Performance on the Blocked-Cyclic Naming (BCN) Task
The BCN tasks involves naming a set of pictures repeatedly. Sets of pictures come from either the same semantic category (high competition condition; e.g., categorically related: "dog", "cat", "panda") or different semantic categories (low competition condition; e.g., unrelated: dog, eye, crib).
Time frame
5-10 minutes after a single session of active (alpha tACS) and sham (fake tACS).Sponsors and contacts
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Source ClinicalTrials.gov