Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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One of the traditional therapies for restoring the ability of speech in aphasic patients is Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT), in which everyday phrases are taught in a singing-like manner. The suggested mechanism for speech recovery is that because of the sharing of brain resources for language and music, the regions normally reserved for singing can be trained to help compensate the speech functions originally subserved by the damaged regions. However, this therapy has primarily been applied to speakers of non-tone languages, in which prosodic features carry a more important role than pitch features in conveying meanings. It remains unknown whether MIT will be equally applicable for speakers of tone languages, in which pitch features likely play a more important role. Another uncertainty concerns whether the efficacy of MIT can be extended to patients with expressive speech impairment due to dementia. This pilot study aims to find out the efficacy of MIT for speech-impaired dementia patients in different verbal tasks. The results of this study will provide preliminary empirical evidence to establish the utility of MIT for Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong.

Official Title
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Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers

Conditions
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Dementia, Speech Therapy

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Early to moderate stage dementia patient Normal hearing (hearing aid accepted) Non-fluent speech (max. score of fluency in Cantonese Aphasia Battery spontaneous speech subtest = 6/10) Exclusion Criteria: Non-native Cantonese speaker Illiterate Aphasic patients Subjects who receive other speech therapy during study

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 50 Years
Maximum Age: 100 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: MIT group<br>Subjects will receive the developed Melodic Intonation Therapy. | Behavioral: Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT)<br>* Subjects will receive at least 6 MIT sessions in group of 3-5 subjects. In the sessions, experimenter will sing songs with the subjects. Songs used in the intervention are familiar to elderly and are rewritten and embedded with everyday phrases and vocabularies. The whole intervention will span 3-4 weeks.<br>|
| No Intervention: Control group<br>Subjects will not receive any intervention. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in Aphasia Quotient (AQ) in Cantonese Aphasia Battery | Two subtests of the Cantonese Aphasia Battery (auditory comprehension & spontaneous speech) will be executed. Higher AQ means better performance in the respective areas. The minimum of AQ in each subtest is 0, and the maximum is 20. | within a week after procedure | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in latency and accuracy in picture naming task | In the computerized picture naming task, subjects are asked to name the objects they see in 52 pictures, within 5000 ms per picture. Visual stimuli of the task are black and white line-drawings. Responses are all recorded for analysis. | within a week after procedure | 
| Change in performance of semantic fluency task | In the computerized semantic fluency task, subjects are given 5 categories (e.g. animals) and asked to name as many members of the categories (e.g. cat, dog) as possible. For each category, they have one minute to respond. All the responses are recorded for analysis. | within a week after procedure | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Melodic Intonation Therapy, Music, Tone language