Transcranial Stimulation Combined With Auditory Training

Conditions

• Difficulties Understanding Speech in Noise

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

50 Years - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Transcranial current stimulation — DEVICE
  The transcranial alternating current stimulation is delivered during the speech stimulus and the current matches the envelope of the target speech
• Auditory training — BEHAVIORAL
  An at-home auditory training program that adaptively and interactively trains the listener in degraded speech, cognitive skills, and communication strategies

Study Details

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if non-invasive brain stimulation (called transcranial stimulation) can enhance the benefits from auditory training in people who struggle to understand one talker when many people are talking at the same time. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does transcranial stimulation improve speech-on-speech understanding in people who struggle with this task? * Does transcranial stimulation enhance the benefits of a commercially available auditory training program? Researchers will compare transcranial stimulation to sham stimulation (no stimulation is applied during the listening task). Participants will: * Receive login information to an online auditory training program to complete at home over 2 weeks * Visit the laboratory 4 times to receive transcranial stimulation while listening to speech-on-speech: once before at-home training, two times during the at-home training period, and once after at-home training has ended

Key Dates

First listed

Dec 17, 2024

Start date

Nov 7, 2025

Status verified

Jul 2026

Primary completion

Mar 31, 2027

Completion

Mar 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment

94 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: Active transcranial stimulation
  This group will receive active transcranial alternating current stimulation that matches the envelope of the target speech.
• Sham Comparator: Sham stimulation
  This group will receive transcranial stimulation that ramps on and off before the speech is presented.

Primary Outcome Measure

Speech-on-speech intelligibility percent correct [ Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks ]

Central Contacts

• Elin Roverud, AuD, PhD
  617-358-7440
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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