Music Listening for Mental Health Recovery After Stroke

This study is looking at whether listening to music can help people recover mentally after a stroke. Researchers want to see if intentional music listening can improve emotional well-being, thinking, memory, and brain activity in stroke survivors. You would be randomly assigned to either listen to music or audiobooks for one hour each day, at home, for four weeks. The study is open to people aged 50 to 90 who have had an ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke at least six months ago. To be successful, the study needs to show that participants can stick with the listening activities and find them acceptable. The current status of the study is unclear.

Study design
This is a randomized study with 60 participants. You would be assigned to either the music listening group or the audiobook listening group.
What's involved
You would listen to music or audiobooks for one hour daily for four weeks. You would also attend four in-person sessions with the researchers.
Compensation
Not stated in the trial record.
Follow-up
You would be followed for three months after the listening period ends.

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NCT07127159

Music Listening for Mental Health Recovery After Stroke

Recruiting
NAAges 50–90InterventionalTreatment
New York University
~60 participants
Updated 2026-08-12 on ClinicalTrials.gov
What's tested:Intentional Music ListeningAudiobook Listening

At a glance

Recruiting sites
1 of 1 listed site is recruiting right now
RecruitingSuspended, closed, or not yet open
What they're measuring
Burden (Completion of evaluation sessions)
Measured over From baseline to follow-up (3 months post-intervention)
+5 more outcomes measured
Stroke

NCT07127159

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.

  • New York University

    New York, New Yorkstudy 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.

  • Pablo Ripolles, PhD · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · New York University

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

Participants aged 50 to 90
Confirmed diagnosis of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke occurring at least six months prior to enrollment.

Exclusion

Significant hearing loss, defined by a score \>26 on the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly Screening (HHIE-S; Ventry and Weinstein, 1982)
Contraindications for MRI
Significant cognitive impairment, defined as a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA; Nasreddine et al., 2005) score below 22 (unless the lower score is attributable to expressive aphasia)
Specific musical anhedonia, defined as a score below 60 on the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ; Mas-Herrero et al., 2013)
Amusia, defined as a score below 70% on the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA; Peretz et al., 2003).
Participants will not be excluded if currently taking medications that may affect brain function (e.g., antidepressants) or if engaged in other complementary therapies (e.g., mindfulness, yoga). Participants will be allowed to initiate new medications or therapies during the study period.
  • Burden (Completion of evaluation sessions)From baseline to follow-up (3 months post-intervention)

    Burden associated with each of the four evaluation sessions will be assessed. The outcome measure will include the proportion of patients who complete evaluations at each time point, with a target of at least 80% completion.

  • Burden RatingsFrom baseline to follow-up (3 months post-intervention)

    Investigators will assess the perceived burden of participants by collecting at each evaluation session burden ratings. Participants will rate sessions as "not burdensome," "partially burdensome," or "very burdensome". The goal is for at least 80% of patients to rate the evaluations at each time point as "not burdensome. Burden ratings will be collected at 4 time points (baseline, pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up).

  • Patient acceptabilityFrom beginning to end of the intervention (4 weeks)

    After each listening session, participants will rate the session as "not acceptable," "partially acceptable," or "fully acceptable." The goal is for at least 80% of sessions to be rated as fully acceptable.

  • Retention and AdherenceFrom beginning to end of the intervention (4 weeks)

    Proportion of enrolled and randomized participants who complete the IML/Audiobook sessions. At least 80% of randomized patients complete at least 80% of the IML/Audiobook sessions.

  • Feasibility RatingsFrom beginning to the end of the intervention (4 weeks)

    Each listening session will be rated by the study team member leading the session as "not feasible," "partially feasible," or "fully feasible." The primary feasibility outcome measure is the proportion of sessions rated "fully feasible," with a target threshold of 80%.

  • FidelityFrom beginning to the end of the intervention (4 weeks)

    Fidelity will be measured as the the proportion of listening sessions delivered according to the protocol; video calls with patients will be recorded and a team member who was not present during the call will review the recordings and score the session as "delivered according to protocol" or "not delivered according to protocol". Benchmark for success: At least 80% of all sessions delivered according to the protocol.