Brain zaps may restore speech and hand movement in stroke survivors
NCT ID NCT06303869
First seen Jun 27, 2026 · Last updated Jun 27, 2026
Summary
This study tests whether temporarily stimulating a specific part of the brain can improve hand, arm, and speech abilities in people who had a stroke at least 6 months ago. Ten participants will have a thin wire placed deep in the brain for less than 30 days to deliver mild electrical pulses. The goal is to see if this approach is safe and which movements or speech improvements it can produce, laying the groundwork for future rehabilitation tools.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 10 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Jun 2025
- Expected to finish
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Dec 2029
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 to 75 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Participants must have suffered a single, ischemic, or hemorrhagic stroke more than 6 months before the time of enrollment with dysarthria as a result. 2. Participants must be between the ages of 18 and 75 years old. (Participants outside this age range may be at an increased medical risk and have an increased risk of fatigue during testing). 3. English speaker. 4. Participant must score ≤ 80% in at least 4 categories of the perceptual speech assessment (speech intelligibility, listener effort, speech naturalness, articulatory precision, speech rate, overall voice quality, and/or overall speech severity). OR ≤ 80% in at least 3 categories of the perceptual speech assessment AND ≤ 27 on the Communicative Participation Item Bank. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Patients who refuse participation in the study. 2. Patients with gross anatomical variances in MR imaging or cerebral vascular accidents involving thalamic and cerebellar areas. 3. Patients with no clinical condition to undergo DBS implantation or highly dependent on anticoagulation therapy. 4. Patients who cannot undergo pre-operative MRIs or could not complete the pre-operative assessments. 5. Participants must not have any serious disease or disorder (ex. neurological condition other than stroke, cancer, severe cardiac or respiratory disease, renal failure, etc.) or cognitive impairments that could affect their ability to participate in this study. 6. Female participants of child-bearing age must not be pregnant, planning to become pregnant for the next 9 months, or breast feeding. 7. Participants must not be receiving anticoagulants. 8. Severe claustrophobia. 9. Participants must not be on anti-spasticity or anti-epileptic medications for the duration of the study. 10. Participants who have been deemed inappropriate for participation based upon results from the Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI-18) and discussions with the Principal Investigator and a study physician 11. Evaluation to sign consent form score \<12. 12. MRI contraindications (excluding subjects who are pregnant, who have metal in any portion of their body, have medical complications, cardiac pacemaker, cochlear implant, aneurysm clip, certain IUDs, or known problems of claustrophobia). 13. Medications with common cognitive side-effects. 14. Bleeding disorders or platelet dysfunction (e.g., from regular aspirin usage). 15. Patients must not have any lesions in the lower motoneuron causing flaccid dysarthria.
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Pittsburgh
RECRUITINGPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, United States
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Other studies related to the condition(s) this trial covers.
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