Sensorimotor Basis of Speech Motor Learning and Retention
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Speech
- Sponsor
- Yale University
- Enrollment
- 50
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Retention of learning
- Status
- Not yet recruiting
- Last Updated
- 5 months ago
Overview
Brief Summary
The overall goal of this research is to test a new model of speech motor learning, whose central hypothesis is that learning and retention are associated with plasticity not only in motor areas of the brain but in auditory and somatosensory regions as well. The strategy for the proposed research is to identify individual brain areas that contribute causally to retention by disrupting their activity with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Investigators will also use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which will enable identification of circuit-level activity which predicts either learning or retention of new movements, and hence test the specific contributions of candidate sensory and motor zones. In other studies, investigators will record sensory and motor evoked potentials over the course of learning to determine the temporal order in which individual sensory and cortical motor regions contribute. The goal here is to identify brain areas in which learning-related plasticity occurs first and which among these areas predict subsequent learning.
Detailed Description
The focus of this registration is Aim 3. Excitability will be assessed. In Aim 3, resting-state fMRI will be interleaved with speech motor adaptation, again using Harvard Sentences. Additional scans and retention tests will be conducted 24 hours later, to assess motor memory consolidation. The Speech Motor Learning and Retention Master Protocol is NCT06467292.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Fluent English speakers
- •Right-handed
- •Normal hearing
- •No speech disorder or reading disability
Exclusion Criteria
- •Cardiac pacemaker
- •Aneurysm clip
- •Heart or Vascular clip
- •Prosthetic valve
- •Metal implants
- •Metal in brain, skull, or spinal cord
- •Implanted neurostimulator
- •Medication infusion device
- •Cochlear implant or tinnitus (ringing in ears)
- •Personal and/or family history of epilepsy or other neurological disorders or history of head concussion
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Retention of learning
Time Frame: 24 hours after learning (re-test lasts 30 minutes)
The retention of adaptation to altered auditory feedback (and relearning) will be quantified in terms of F1 and F2 frequency shifts (relative to pre-training baseline). Larger values indicate more complete relearning or retention.
Change in fMRI resting-state connectivity following speech motor learning
Time Frame: baseline and at the end of learning (30 minute session)
fMRI resting-state connectivity change following speech motor learning. Functional connectivity will be measured between each of the following regions: Heschel's gyrus, posterior superior temporal gyrus, primary and second somatosensory cortex, supramarginal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, motor and ventral premotor cortex and supplementary motor area.
Speech motor learning
Time Frame: Performance as measured at the end of learning (30 minute session)
Audapter software will be used to alter the first and second formant frequencies of the spoken words and this is played back to subjects through headphones. Subjects will be tested both with unaltered feedback and with abruptly introduced frequency shifts.The change in the first (F1) and second format frequency (F2) values will be assessed using Praat.
fMRI resting-state connectivity measures of motor memory retention
Time Frame: 24 hours after learning (re-test lasts 30 minutes)
fMRI resting-state connectivity measures of motor memory retention. Functional connectivity will be measured between each of the following regions: Heschel's gyrus, posterior superior temporal gyrus, primary and second somatosensory cortex, supramarginal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, motor and ventral premotor cortex and supplementary motor area.