Acquired Dyslexia Modeling and Treatment (AMT)

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Stroke; Dyslexia, Acquired

Treatments: Behavioral: Semantic Feature Analysis; Behavioral: Phono-Motor Therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT07209488

R56DC022256 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Pro2025001100

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study is a low-risk, early phase 1, multicenter trial to test the use of a computational (neural network) cognitive model of reading to simulate acquired dyslexia and its treatment. The aim is to determine whether there is an advantage to receiving the treatment the model predicts to be advantageous compared to the alternative treatment. All participants will receive two full rounds of treatment. A round of treatment will consist of either phonomotor treatment (PMT) or semantic feature analysis (SFA) for 60 hours, distributed over 5 days a week for 2 hours a day.

Enrollment: 12 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 85 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Fluent in English as a first language pre-stroke by self report.
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision.
• Normal or aided hearing.
• Left hemisphere ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke (as verified by a structural brain scan).
• Impaired reading as confirmed by significant impairment in the Basic Skills cluster of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test - III.

Exclusion criteria

• Diagnosed pre-stroke neurological disease affecting the brain other than left hemisphere stroke.
• Severe apraxia of speech (determined by consensus judgment among speech-language pathologists).
• History of learning disabilities such as developmental dyslexia or current self-reported major psychiatric disorders.
• Inability to undergo, or provide a copy of, a post-stroke brain imaging scan.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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12 participants in 2 patient groups

Model-matched

Experimental group

Description:

This group will receive the therapy, either phonological or semantics-based, that matches the computational model prediction for the source of their reading impairment. They will receive this for the first 60 total hours of therapy, and for the second 60 hours of therapy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Semantic Feature Analysis

Behavioral: Phono-Motor Therapy

Model-non-matched

Active Comparator group

Description:

This group will receive the therapy, either phonological or semantics-based, that does not match the computational model prediction for the source of their reading impairment. They will receive this for the first 60 total hours of therapy. For the second 60 hours, they will receive the other therapy.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Semantic Feature Analysis

Behavioral: Phono-Motor Therapy