Information Processing Biases in Adults Who Stutter

NCT ID: NCT06422442

Last Updated: 2024-05-21

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 80 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-09-11
• Study Completion Date: 2026-06-30

Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether stuttering is associated with a tendency to attend more quickly or for longer durations to threat-related information in the environment (threat-related attention bias). The main questions it aims to answer are:

Do adults who stutter, relative to adults who do not stutter, attend to threat-related stimuli more than neutral information? Are attentional biases observed across different types of threat or are they specific to threats related to stuttering experiences? Do measures of attention bias explain individual differences in psychological reactions among adults who stutter?

Detailed Description

The goal of the project is to examine threat-related attentional processes associated with stuttering. In Aim 1, investigators will establish differences in attention bias (AB) in adults who do and do not stutter and the processing stage at which differences emerge. In Aim 2, investigators will compare AB effects across different categories of threat stimuli to determine whether threat-related AB in adults who stutter is general or disorder-specific. In Aim 3, the investigators examine the role of AB as a causal factor mediating effects of individual risk-factors (related to temperament and attention control) on stuttering impact and anticipation. Participants will include 35 adults who stutter and 35 adults who stutter between the ages of 18-30 years, all meeting specified eligibility criteria. All participants will complete three experimental tasks for measuring AB: (1) a free-viewing task, (2) dot-probe task, and (3) emotional Stroop task. Study procedures will be administered over two sessions (2-2.5 hours each) scheduled within three weeks of each other. Key outcomes will include reaction time and eye-tracking measures, which will be used to extract multiple AB indices. Data will be analyzed via mixed-effects regression analysis with a random intercept for subject and maximal converging random-slopes structure. Age, gender, socioeconomic status and various measures used for inclusion purposes will be included as covariates. Mediation analyses will assess four relationships (Temperament -> Stuttering impact, Temperament -> Anticipation, Attention control -> Stuttering impact, and Attention control -> Anticipation), with AB as the mediator variable in each analysis.

Conditions

Stuttering, Adult

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Eye tracking tasks

All participants complete three tasks in which they view threat-related and neutral stimuli (words or faces)

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Threat-related stimulus exposure

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will view threat-related stimuli (words or faces) paired with nonthreat matches in three related experimental paradigms.

Interventions

Threat-related stimulus exposure

Participants will view threat-related stimuli (words or faces) paired with nonthreat matches in three related experimental paradigms.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Speaks English as their primary language
• Normal hearing (based on pure tone screening)
• Normal or corrected vision (based on report)
• Normal color vision (based on Ishihara Test, Concise Edition)
• Nonverbal intelligence within at least average range based on Test of Nonverbal Intelligence, 4th Edition
• Expressive language within at least average range score based on Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test

• Self-identification as a person who stutters
• Score of at least 11 (mild stuttering) on Stuttering Severity Index, 4th Edition

Exclusion Criteria

• Reported significant medical history
• Psychological or emotional disorder
• History of frank neurological injury
• Known speech, language, or learning disorder(s) other than stuttering
• Reading difficulties
• Score within clinically significant range for ADHD on Adults ADHD Self-Rating Scale
• Score within clinically significant range for depression on Beck Depression Inventory
• Score within clinically significant range for anxiety on State-Trait Anxiety Inventory

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 65 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Memphis

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

University of Memphis

Memphis, Tennessee, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Facility Contacts

Naomi Eichorn, PhD

Role: primary

neichorn@memphis.edu

901-678-5825

Edina Bene

Role: backup

ebene@memphis.edu

(901) 678-2573

Other Identifiers

R21DC020557

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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