Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers

NCT ID: NCT04221386

Last Updated: 2020-04-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: SUSPENDED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 40 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2020-08-01
• Study Completion Date: 2021-02-28

Brief Summary

One of the traditional therapies for restoring the ability of speech in aphasic patients is Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), in which everyday phrases are taught in a singing-like manner. The suggested mechanism for speech recovery is that because of the sharing of brain resources for language and music, the regions normally reserved for singing can be trained to help compensate the speech functions originally subserved by the damaged regions. However, this therapy has primarily been applied to speakers of non-tone languages, in which prosodic features carry a more important role than pitch features in conveying meanings. It remains unknown whether MIT will be equally applicable for speakers of tone languages, in which pitch features likely play a more important role. Another uncertainty concerns whether the efficacy of MIT can be extended to patients with expressive speech impairment due to dementia. This pilot study aims to find out the efficacy of MIT for speech-impaired dementia patients in different verbal tasks. The results of this study will provide preliminary empirical evidence to establish the utility of MIT for Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong.

Conditions

Dementia; Speech Therapy

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

MIT group

Subjects will receive the developed Melodic Intonation Therapy.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Subjects will receive at least 6 MIT sessions in group of 3-5 subjects. In the sessions, experimenter will sing songs with the subjects. Songs used in the intervention are familiar to elderly and are rewritten and embedded with everyday phrases and vocabularies. The whole intervention will span 3-4 weeks.

Control group

Subjects will not receive any intervention.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)

Subjects will receive at least 6 MIT sessions in group of 3-5 subjects. In the sessions, experimenter will sing songs with the subjects. Songs used in the intervention are familiar to elderly and are rewritten and embedded with everyday phrases and vocabularies. The whole intervention will span 3-4 weeks.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Early to moderate stage dementia patient
• Normal hearing (hearing aid accepted)
• Non-fluent speech (max. score of fluency in Cantonese Aphasia Battery spontaneous speech subtest = 6/10)

Exclusion Criteria

• Non-native Cantonese speaker
• Illiterate
• Aphasic patients
• Subjects who receive other speech therapy during study

• Minimum Eligible Age: 50 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 100 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

William Shi Yuan Wang, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Locations

Elderly homes

Hong Kong, , Hong Kong

Countries

Hong Kong

References

Albert ML, Sparks RW, Helm NA. Melodic intonation therapy for aphasia. Arch Neurol. 1973 Aug;29(2):130-1. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1973.00490260074018. No abstract available.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 4717723 (View on PubMed)

Sparks R, Helm N, Albert M. Aphasia rehabilitation resulting from melodic intonation therapy. Cortex. 1974 Dec;10(4):303-16. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(74)80024-9. No abstract available.

Reference Type: BACKGROUND

PMID: 4452250 (View on PubMed)

Sarkamo T, Sihvonen AJ. Golden oldies and silver brains: Deficits, preservation, learning, and rehabilitation effects of music in ageing-related neurological disorders. Cortex. 2018 Dec;109:104-123. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.08.034. Epub 2018 Sep 19.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 30312779 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

IZZKJ

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id