Targeting Language-specific and Executive-control Networks With Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Logopenic Variant PPA

Launched by JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · Mar 21, 2019

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying a new approach to help people with a type of language disorder called logopenic progressive aphasia (lvPPA), which affects communication abilities. Researchers are exploring whether a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which uses low electrical currents to stimulate specific areas of the brain, can enhance language therapy. The trial aims to see if combining tDCS with therapy can improve language skills more effectively than therapy alone. Participants will undergo various brain imaging tests to understand how tDCS affects brain activity and connections related to language and memory.

To be eligible for this study, participants must be between 50 and 80 years old, right-handed, and proficient in English, with at least a high school education. They need to have been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia or a similar dementia. Participants can expect to take part in therapy sessions combined with stimulation treatments, along with brain scans before, after, and three months later to track any changes. It's important to note that individuals with certain neurological conditions, severe language impairments, or psychiatric disorders may not be eligible to participate.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Must be between 50-80 years of age.
• • Must be right-handed.
• • Must be proficient in English.
• • Must have a minimum of high-school education.
• • Must be diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) or dementia.
• • Participants will be diagnosed with PPA or with any of the PPA variants in specialized or early dementias clinics at Johns Hopkins University or other specialized centers in the US based on the current consensus criteria.
• • Healthy age- and education-matched controls: The investigators will include 30 healthy age- and education-matched controls, usually spouses, to maximize similarity in terms of other demographic or life-style factors that contribute to language and cognitive performance.
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • People with previous neurological disease including vascular dementia (e.g., stroke, developmental dyslexia, dysgraphia or attentional deficit).
• • People with uncorrected hearing loss
• • People with uncorrected visual acuity loss.
• • People with advanced dementia or severe language impairments: Mini Mental State -Examination (MMSE)\<18, or Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA)\<15, or language Frontotemporal Dementia specific - Clinical Dementia Rating (FTD-CDR)\<=2.
• • Left handed individuals.
• • People with pre-existing psychiatric disorders such as behavioral disturbances, severe depression, or schizophrenia that do not allow these people to comply or follow the study schedule and requirements such as repeated evaluation and therapy.
• Exclusion Criteria for MRI Participation:
• • People with severe claustrophobia.
• • People with cardiac pacemakers or ferromagnetic implants.
• • Pregnant women.