An interventional study of fMRI and Adaptation in Speech, sponsored by Yale University. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 40 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-16.
Sponsored by Yale University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
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.
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.
205 studies on the registry are indexed under Speech; 80 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 50 is close to the median of 52 across 141 interventional studies indexed under Speech.
Browse Speech studies →Yale University is the lead sponsor of 1,770 studies on the registry; 294 are open to participants now.
Of its 221 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 129 (58%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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Exclusion Criteria:
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.
Device: fMRI · Behavioral: Adaptation
Participants in a control condition who will undergo the same procedures, without altered feedback
Device: fMRI · Behavioral: Adaptation
To assess functional connectivity patterns between regions that predict learning.
Auditory adaptation in speech
Auditory baseline in speech
Speech motor learning
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.
Time frame: Performance as measured at the end of learning (30 minute session)
Retention of learning
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.
Time frame: 24 hours after learning (re-test lasts 30 minutes)
Change in fMRI resting-state connectivity following speech motor learning
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.
Time frame: baseline and at the end of learning (30 minute session)
fMRI resting-state connectivity measures of motor memory retention
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.
Time frame: 24 hours after learning (re-test lasts 30 minutes)
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started May 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Nov 2028, 30 months after the start.
Of 85 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Speech, half reached primary completion within 45 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 14 and three quarters within 65. This study's planned 30 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 90 studies reached it within 45 months; a quarter within 15 and three quarters within 65.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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