Speech Motor Learning and Retention (Aim 3)

NCT ID: NCT06492252

Last Updated: 2025-11-21

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 50 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2026-02-28
• Study Completion Date: 2029-05-31

Brief Summary

The overall goal of this research is to test a new model of speech motor learning, whose central hypothesis is that learning and retention are associated with plasticity not only in motor areas of the brain but in auditory and somatosensory regions as well. The strategy for the proposed research is to identify individual brain areas that contribute causally to retention by disrupting their activity with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Investigators will also use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which will enable identification of circuit-level activity which predicts either learning or retention of new movements, and hence test the specific contributions of candidate sensory and motor zones. In other studies, investigators will record sensory and motor evoked potentials over the course of learning to determine the temporal order in which individual sensory and cortical motor regions contribute. The goal here is to identify brain areas in which learning-related plasticity occurs first and which among these areas predict subsequent learning.

Detailed Description

The focus of this registration is Aim 3. Excitability will be assessed. In Aim 3, resting-state fMRI will be interleaved with speech motor adaptation, again using Harvard Sentences. Additional scans and retention tests will be conducted 24 hours later, to assess motor memory consolidation.

The Speech Motor Learning and Retention Master Protocol is NCT06467292.

Conditions

Speech

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Altered auditory feedback + fMRI

Participants will perform learning tasks then undergo fMRI. This procedure will be repeated on day 2. Functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning will be assessed. Participants then leave the laboratory and return 24 hours later to assess retention of learning.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

fMRI

Intervention Type: DEVICE

To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.

Adaptation

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Auditory adaptation in speech

Control Condition

Participants in a control condition who will undergo the same procedures, without altered feedback

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

fMRI

Intervention Type: DEVICE

To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.

Adaptation

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Auditory baseline in speech

Interventions

fMRI

To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Adaptation

Auditory adaptation in speech

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Adaptation

Auditory baseline in speech

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Fluent English speakers
• Right-handed
• Normal hearing
• No speech disorder or reading disability

Exclusion Criteria

• Cardiac pacemaker
• Aneurysm clip
• Heart or Vascular clip
• Prosthetic valve
• Metal implants
• Metal in brain, skull, or spinal cord
• Implanted neurostimulator
• Medication infusion device
• Cochlear implant or tinnitus (ringing in ears)
• Personal and/or family history of epilepsy or other neurological disorders or history of head concussion
• Psychoactive medications
• Pregnancy

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 40 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Yale University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

David Ostry

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Yale University

Locations

Yale Child Study Center

New Haven, Connecticut, United States

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

David Ostry

Role: CONTACT

david.ostry@yale.edu

2038656163

Other Identifiers

1R01DC022097-01A1

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

2000037622_c

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id