Enhancing Speech Fluency With Non-invasive Brain Stimulation in Developmental Stuttering

University of Oxford

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stuttering; Fluency Disorders; Speech Disorders

Treatments: Device: Anodal TDCS; Behavioral: Fluency Training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02288598

MSD-IDREC-C2-2014-013

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study aims to test whether the addition of transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) to speech fluency training results in improvements in speech fluency in adults with developmental stuttering. Half of the participants will receive anodal TDCS on five consecutive days, the other half will receive a sham stimulation for the same amount of time.

Full description

Studies using TDCS have shown improvements in motor performance, and in expressive language skills in clinical and healthy populations. The benefits of single sessions of TDCS are short-lived. However, stimulation over multiple sessions can increase and prolong learning effects that can persist for several weeks after the end of the stimulation period. We aim to target left hemisphere frontal regions involved in speech production with TDCS, and to pair this stimulation with speech fluency training.

Enrollment: 30 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Native speaker of English.
• Right handed.
• Participant has moderate to severe Developmental Stuttering (Stammering)

Exclusion criteria

• Speech, language or communication disorder other than Developmental Stuttering.
• Sensory impairment (hearing loss or visual impairment)
• History of drug abuse.
• History of seizures
• History of a neurological or psychiatric illness.
• History of neurosurgical procedure.
• Currently taking certain prescription medications such as anti-depressants and anti-malarial medication (as these may lower the seizure threshold)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Quadruple Blind

---

30 participants in 2 patient groups

Anodal TDCS

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive anodal TDCS over the left inferior frontal cortex. TDCS will be delivered at 1milliampere (mA) intensity for 20 minutes during speech fluency training (5 consecutive days).

Treatment:

Device: Anodal TDCS

Behavioral: Fluency Training

Sham TDCS

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Participants will receive sham TDCS over the left inferior frontal cortex. Sham stimulation will involve 30 seconds stimulation at the beginning of the 20 minutes of speech fluency training (5 consecutive days).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Fluency Training