Cerebellar Stimulation for Aphasia Rehabilitation (CeSAR)
Details
Status
Open: Currently recruiting participants.
Closed: Recruitment either has not started or has paused or completed.
Study Type
Interventional (clinical trials): Test treatments.
Observational: Conduct surveys and interviews, study medical records and otherwise observe people or groups over time.
Interventional
Study Phase
Each study phase tests different aspects of the medication or treatment:
- Phase I: safety and dosing
- Phase II: effectiveness and side effects
- Phase III: efficacy compared to standard treatments
- Phase IV: long-term safety after approval for use
Unspecified
Location(s)
Johns Hopkins study sites. Additional study locations may be found on ClinicalTrials.gov.
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
1800 Orleans St Baltimore, MD 21287
Keywords
Contact Us
[email protected]Brief Summary
The optimal site of neuromodulation for post-stroke aphasia has yet to be established. This study will investigate whether multiple sessions of cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) boosts language therapy in helping people recover from aphasia as well as predict who is likely to respond to cerebellar tDCS.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Chronic ischemic or hemorrhagic left hemisphere stroke
- Fluent speaker of English by self-report
- Age 18 or older
- 6 months post onset of stroke
- Diagnosis of aphasia and naming impairment using the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised
Exclusion Criteria:
- Lesion in the right cerebellum
- Previous neurological disorder (other than stroke) affecting the brain, or any other neurodegenerative disorder or psychiatric disorder
- Seizures during the previous 6 months
- Uncorrected visual loss or hearing loss by self-report
- Use of medications that lower the seizure threshold (e.g., methylphenidate)
- Use of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonists (e.g., memantine)
- >80% correct response on the Philadelphia Naming Testing at baseline
- History of brain surgery or any metal in the head
- Severely impaired auditory comprehension (lower than 2 on the Comprehension subscore on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised)
- Severely limited verbal output (lower than 2 on the Spontaneous Speech rating scale on the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised)
- Individuals with severe claustrophobia, cardiac pacemakers or ferromagnetic implants, and pregnant women will be excluded from the MRI portion of the study.