Speech Motor Learning and Retention (Aim 3)

Conditions

• Speech

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - 40 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• fMRI — DEVICE
  To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.
• Adaptation — BEHAVIORAL
  Auditory adaptation in speech
• Adaptation — BEHAVIORAL
  Auditory baseline in speech

Study Details

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.

Key Dates

Start date

May 4, 2026

Status verified

May 2026

Primary completion

Nov 30, 2028

Completion

May 31, 2029

Study Design

Enrollment

50 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Arms

• Experimental: Altered auditory feedback + fMRI
  Participants will perform learning tasks then undergo fMRI. This procedure will be repeated on day 2. Functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning will be assessed. Participants then leave the laboratory and return 24 hours later to assess retention of learning.
• Experimental: Control Condition
  Participants in a control condition who will undergo the same procedures, without altered feedback

Primary Outcome Measure

Speech motor learning [ Time Frame: Performance as measured at the end of learning (30 minute session) ]

Central Contacts

• David Ostry
  2038656163
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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