Lexical Tone Perception in Tone language--a fMRI Study

NCT ID: NCT04135105

Last Updated: 2020-01-27

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

29 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2017-02-12

Study Completion Date

2019-09-30

Brief Summary

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Tone language refers to a language that uses fixed pitch pattern to distinguish words (Yip, 2002). Understanding the functional anatomy of the brain during lexical tone processing will provide useful hints for an effective intervention strategy such as brain stimulation. The present study investigate the cortical organisation of the brain in lexical tone perception of Cantonese speakers by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Detailed Description

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Tone language refers to a language that uses fixed pitch pattern to distinguish words (Yip, 2002). Cantonese is one of the main tone languages spoken by over 70 million around the world (Li et al.,1995; Adolfsson, 2010). Individuals with significant hearing impairment often present great difficulty in tone perception, affecting their understanding of words and hence, hamper their overall communication. The poor tone perception persists even with intensive auditory training coupled with advanced hearing technology such as cochlear implants.

Understanding the functional anatomy of the brain during lexical tone processing will provide useful hints for an effective intervention strategy such as brain stimulation. Researchers have been investigating the neural basis for tone perception in the past decades but failing to come to a consensus on the location of the brain that is responsible for lexical tone processing. The discrepant results may be due to the fact of the differences in subject selection (animals, healthy adults, brain-injured patients, tonal-language and non-tonal language speakers), testing materials and tasks employed (linguistic versus non-linguistic stimuli; dichotic listening versus discrimination and identification tasks) and outcome measurements (performance score, reaction time, accuracy rate, PET scan and fMRI).

Cortical organization, or brain mapping, refers to functional anatomy of the brain. The present study is the first study to systematically investigate the cortical organization of the brain in lexical tone perception of Cantonese speakers by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A comprehensive set of auditory stimuli specifically for investigating the different levels of lexical tone processing will be constructed. Native Cantonese speakers with normal hearing were recruited. They underwent fMRI while listening to the carefully designed auditory stimuli.

Once the cortical organization of lexical tone processing in Cantonese is identified, the valuable findings could be applied in further brain intervention procedures to tackle the long lasting, unresolved tone perception difficulty encountered by people with hearing impairment or other related disorders.

Conditions

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Lexical Tone Neuroimaging Chinese Speech Perception

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

OTHER

Study Time Perspective

OTHER

Study Groups

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Normal hearing group

Right-handed, normal hearing, no reported neurological disorders

Normal hearing group

Intervention Type OTHER

Observational

Interventions

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Normal hearing group

Observational

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* native Cantonese speaker
* right-handed
* normal hearing
* no reported of neurological disorder

Exclusion Criteria

* neurological disorder
* left-handed
* hearing impairment
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Chinese University of Hong Kong

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Kathy Y.S. LEE

Chief of Division of Speech Therapy

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Yuet Sheung Lee, Professor

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Chinese University of Hong Kong

Locations

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Prince of Wales Hospital

Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Site Status

Countries

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China

Other Identifiers

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Lexical tone perception(fMRI)

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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