Clinical trial NCT04221386: Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers
Official title: Melodic Intonation Therapy for Tone Language Speakers
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: SUSPENDED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Dementia
Speech Therapy
Keywords: Melodic Intonation Therapy
Music
Tone language
Lead sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2020-01-09
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 50
Maximum age (years): 100
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: 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.


Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Aphasia Quotient (AQ) in Cantonese Aphasia Battery
timeFrame: within a week after procedure
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in latency and accuracy in picture naming task
timeFrame: within a week after procedure
measure: Change in performance of semantic fluency task
timeFrame: within a week after procedure
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: Hong Kong
facility: Elderly homes
Study officials:
affiliation: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
name: William Shi Yuan Wang, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Albert ML, Sparks RW, Helm NA. Melodic intonation therapy for aphasia. Arch Neurol. 1973 Aug;29(2):130-1. doi: 10.1001/archneur.1973.00490260074018. No abstract available.
citation: Sparks R, Helm N, Albert M. Aphasia rehabilitation resulting from melodic intonation therapy. Cortex. 1974 Dec;10(4):303-16. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(74)80024-9. No abstract available.
citation: Sarkamo T, Sihvonen AJ. Golden oldies and silver brains: Deficits, preservation, learning, and rehabilitation effects of music in ageing-related neurological disorders. Cortex. 2018 Dec;109:104-123. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.08.034. Epub 2018 Sep 19.