Speech Motor Learning and Retention (Aim 3)
NCT Number: NCT06492252
Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
Phases: NA
Conditions: Speech
Interventions: DEVICE: fMRI|BEHAVIORAL: Adaptation|BEHAVIORAL: Adaptation
Sponsor: Yale University
Collaborators: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Sex: ALL
Age: ADULT
Enrollment: 50
Study Design: Allocation: RANDOMIZED|Intervention Model: PARALLEL|Masking: NONE|Primary Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
Start Date: 2025-07
Completion Date: 2027-07
Locations: Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, Connecticut, 06520, United States

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.

Primary Outcome Measures: 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., 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., 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., 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., 24 hours after learning (re-test lasts 30 minutes)