Clinical Research Directory

Cerebellar Brain Stimulation Plus Language Therapy for People at Risk of Poor Aphasia Recovery After Stroke

Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University

Summary

This pilot study tests whether a mild form of brain stimulation to the cerebellum, combined with computer-based language therapy, helps people recover language after a stroke when a poor natural recovery is predicted. People already taking part in a Johns Hopkins study of stroke and language recovery, whose early data suggest the aphasia is unlikely to resolve without treatment, are invited about 3 months after the stroke. Half begin 15 treatment sessions right away and half begin about 3 months later. Each session pairs 25 minutes of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right cerebellum with 45 to 60 minutes of language exercises, with a speech-language pathologist present. The main question is whether language ability, measured with the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised Aphasia Quotient, improves more by 6 months after stroke in the group treated first than in the group still waiting. The study also checks how accurately a machine learning model, built from data collected in the first days after stroke, predicted each person's language ability 12 months after stroke.

Official title: Predicting Aphasia Recovery and Testing Cerebellar Neuromodulation (PART-CN): A Pilot Wait-List Randomized Trial of Cathodal Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Plus Computerized Language Therapy in Stroke Survivors Predicted to Have Poor Language Recovery

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