Examining Interactions Between PALS and Caregivers

NCT ID: NCT06819124

Last Updated: 2025-02-11

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

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

152 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-01-22

Study Completion Date

2029-02-28

Brief Summary

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The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the effect of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their caregivers.

The question is, What are the effects of communicative interaction on verbal communication in people with ALS when they interact with their caregivers and does this change over time?

Participants will read words and sentences while they are interacting with their caregivers.

Detailed Description

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PALS and Caregivers will participate in two sets (pre-test and post-test) of interactive tasks two weeks apart. Over two weeks, they will complete the collaborative word-matching task ten times (once every weekday for an average of 10 mins/day) on their own.

The study is designed to examine two things. First, to examine the speech produced by PALS with familiar interlocutors. Second, to examine the changes in speech production as a function of collaborative practice.

Plans for Assignment - This is a single group study in which all participants will engage in the same tasks.

Delivery of Intervention: Using tablets and audio recording devices provided to them, participants will complete this task in the comfort of their home. Study protocols will be explained via videoconferencing by experimenters. Produced speech will be recorded using solid-state audio recorders as well as remotely through the video conferencing software.

Adequacy of Sample size. Assuming medium effect sizes (Cohen's f = 0.3) based on our pilot data, for 80% power at an alpha of .05, the investigators will require 76 speakers. The investigators propose n =76 PALS and their caregivers (total 152) in order to account for speech variability that is common for PALS.

Adequacy of Analyses. The proposed statistical analyses (Generalized mixed effects regressions) are standard and will be used to analyze the effect of the intervention on the outcome measures described below. Severity of condition (for PALS) will be included in the analyses and by-subject slopes and intercepts will be used to account for variability across participants.

Conditions

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Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NA

Intervention Model

SINGLE_GROUP

PALS and Caregivers will participate in two sets (pre-test and post-test) of interactive tasks two weeks apart. Over two weeks, they will complete the collaborative word-matching task ten times (once every weekday for an average of 10 mins/day) on their own.

The study is designed to examine two things. First, to examine the speech produced by PALS with familiar interlocutors. Second, to examine the changes in speech production as a function of collaborative practice.

Plans for Assignment - This is a single group study in which all participants will engage in the same tasks.
Primary Study Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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People with ALS and their caregivers

People with ALS and their caregivers will participate in structured communicative interaction.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Structured Communicative Interaction

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

Unstructured communicative interaction

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.

Interventions

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Structured Communicative Interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. Each participant in the pair will view the same set of words on their screens. After one second, one of the words will be highlighted on the speaker's screen, they will say the word in the phrase "Click on the \_\_\_\_ this time", and the listener will click on it. After the listener has made their selection, both participants will receive feedback on trial success.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Unstructured communicative interaction

Two interlocutors, one with ALS and their caregiver will work together. The pairs will be presented with two different versions of the same picture with eight differences chosen to elicit the same target segments (e.g., "hid", "ship", "net"). These pictures will be modified from the LUCID corpus. In total, pairs will complete four picture sets per session. Pairs will be given 5 minutes for each picture set.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

Speakers with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (PALS-people with ALS)

* diagnosis of ALS following the revised EL Escorial criteria
* no history of other neurological conditions (e.g., stroke)
* no cognitive impairment assessed by Telephone Montreal Cognitive Assessment (mini MoCA)
* detectable speech disturbance according to the ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSFRS-R)
* the ability to produce single words
* being a native speaker of American English (AE).

Caregivers

* being a caregiver of a participant with ALS
* being a native speaker of American English (AE).
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

90 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

NIH

Sponsor Role collaborator

Penn State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Ji Min Lee, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Jimin Lee, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Penn State University

Anne Olmstead, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Penn State University

Navin Viswanathan, Ph.D.

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Penn State University

Locations

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Speech Core, Pennsylvania State University

University Park, Pennsylvania, United States

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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United States

Central Contacts

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Anne Olmstead, Ph.D.

Role: CONTACT

814-867-3373

Navin Viswanathan, Ph.D

Role: CONTACT

814-867-2340

Facility Contacts

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Jimin Lee, Ph.D.

Role: primary

814-867-3373

References

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Olmstead, A. J., Viswanathan, N., Cowan, T., & Yang, K. (2021). Phonetic adaptation in interlocutors with mismatched language backgrounds: A case for a phonetic synergy account. Journal of Phonetics, 87, 101054.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Olmstead AJ, Lee J, Viswanathan N. The Role of the Speaker, the Listener, and Their Joint Contributions During Communicative Interactions: A Tripartite View of Intelligibility in Individuals With Dysarthria. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2020 Apr 27;63(4):1106-1114. doi: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-19-00233. Epub 2020 Apr 17.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 32302251 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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R01DC021714

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

STUDY00024154-1

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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