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Understanding How We Control Our Speech

This study is looking at how hearing ourselves speak affects how we plan and make speech movements. It's not a treatment study, but aims to understand how our brains adjust speech. Researchers will use "Auditory feedback perturbation during speech" (changing how you hear your own voice in real-time) and "Visual feedback perturbation during reaching" (changing what you see during arm movements). For some participants with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) implants, researchers will also test speech with the DBS stimulation ON and OFF. The study will measure changes in speech sounds (formant frequencies), arm movement direction, and brain activity (auditory evoked potentials from EEG recordings). You can join if you are a native American English speaker, aged 4 or older, with good hearing and no communication or neurological problems (unless you are in the DBS group). The study is planned to include 507 participants, but its current status is unclear.

Study design
This is an interventional study with a planned enrollment of 507 participants. It is not a treatment study, but aims to understand how speech movements are controlled.
What's involved
You will read words, sentences, or syllables while your speech is recorded. Some participants will also wear an electrode cap to record brain activity. Measurements for speech will take about 1 hour, and for arm movements and brain activity, about 2 hours.
Compensation
Not stated in the trial record.
Follow-up
Measurements will only be made during a single test session, lasting approximately 1 to 2 hours.

AI-generated from the public study record. Only the study team can confirm whether you're eligible — confirm details with them before making decisions.

NCT06164717

Behavioral and Neural Characteristics of Adaptive Speech Motor Control

Recruiting
NAAges 4+InterventionalBasic science
University of Washington
~507 participants
Updated 2023-12-11 on ClinicalTrials.gov
What's tested:Auditory feedback perturbation during speechVisual feedback perturbation during reachingDBS stimulation ON/OFF

At a glance

Recruiting sites
1 of 1 listed site is recruiting right now
RecruitingSuspended, closed, or not yet open
What they're measuring
Speech formant frequencies
Measured over Measurements will be made only from acoustic recordings made during the test session (~1 hour).
+5 more outcomes measured

Conditions

Speech

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Speech

NCT06164717

Where you'd take part

This study runs at 1 site. They're the same protocol — you choose where, and that choice sets who your contact draft is addressed to.

  • University of Washington

    Seattle, Washingtonstudy coordinator listed

    Recruiting

Sites open and close at different times, so the status above is per site — it can differ from the study's overall status.

Study leadership

  • Ludo Max, Ph.D. · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · University of Washington

Who to contact

Ludo Max
[email protected]
206-543-2674
Email the study team

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

native speaker of American English
no communication or neurological problems (except for subjects in the DBS group)
250-4000 Hz pure tone hearing thresholds equal to or better than 25 dB HL for children and young adults and equal to or better than 35 dB HL for older adults
no medications that affect sensorimotor functioning (except for in the DBS group)
adult subjects: 18 years of age or older
typical children: 4;0 to 6;11 \[years;months\] or 10;0 to 12;11 \[years;months\])

What this trial measures

  • Speech formant frequenciesMeasurements will be made only from acoustic recordings made during the test session (~1 hour).

    The frequencies of the subject's first two formants (F1, F2) for each test word will be measured from spectrographic displays with overlaid Linear Predictive Coding formant tracks.

  • Reach direction for arm movementsOutcome measures will be made only during a single data recording session (~2 hours).

    Measuring initial reach direction for arm movements allows us to measure the direction that was planned before movement onset.

  • Amplitude of long-latency auditory evoked potentials (from EEG recordings) responsesMeasurements will be made only from electroencephalography (EEG) recordings made during the test session (~2 hours).

    Amplitude of the N1 component (in microvolt) will be measured in response to both probe tones and to a subject's own speech onset.

  • Local field potentials recorded by neural implantsMeasurements will be made only from DBS implant recordings made during the test session (~1-2 hours).

    Local field potentials (LFPs) will be recorded by the PerceptPC DBS implants and used to measure changes in power spectrum density across different phases of the tasks. Additionally, LFPs will be used to conduct event-related analyses.

  • Temporal measures of speech syllable sequence learningOutcome measures will be made only during a single data recording session (~0.5 hours)

    1\. Speech onset time (in milliseconds); 2. Average syllable duration (in milliseconds)

  • Accuracy during speech syllable sequence learningOutcome measures will be made only during a single data recording session (~0.5 hours)

    Sequence accuracy (in percent)