Functional Reorganization and Recovery of the Language and Domain-general Multiple Demand Systems in Aphasia
Aphasia
What this study involves
The registry says this study is recruiting. Individual locations may have different availability.
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Age range
- 18 years - 80 years
- Sex eligible
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Participants
- 100 Estimated
These are starting points, not an eligibility decision. The research team must review the full requirements.
About the research
The objective of this study is to apply state-of-the art brain imaging approaches to evaluate new hypotheses about the contributions of core linguistic vs. domain-general executive systems to language processing and recovery in patients with varying degrees of linguistic impairment. Specifically, the investigators will first characterize the degree to which standard language assessments tax the domain-general Multiple Demand (MD) network (Aim 1). And then systematically investigate the causal contributions of the language and the MD networks to language processing and aphasia recovery in patients of varying severity (Aims 2 and 3).
Who may be able to participate?
The list below is the sponsor’s full registry wording. It can include conditions, prior treatment, test results and other requirements. A match in search does not mean you qualify.
Inclusion Criteria:
- at least 12 weeks post-stroke at time of study enrolment
- medically and neurologically stable (no active seizures for 6 months) and at least wheelchair ambulatory
- premorbid fluency in English
- a family member or caregiver available to assist in study setup and in communicating with study staff
Exclusion Criteria:
- a major, active neurological condition other than stroke, as determined by medical record review
- history of cognitive impairment unrelated to stroke, such as dementia
- history of symptomatic stroke prior to index stroke
- severe uncorrected vision and/or hearing problems likely to impact study participation
- comorbid learning or language disorder diagnosed prior to stroke or as a child
Treatment, groups and participation
The registry may describe treatments and study duration without a complete visit calendar. Ask the study team for the exact schedule, procedures, risks, costs and alternatives. Keep your usual care plan unless your treating clinician tells you otherwise.
- Assignment
- Random assignment
- Masking
- Single masked
Immediate treatment
Participants randomized to this arm will receive the intervention immediately after baseline behavioral and neural procedures.
Behavioral: Constant Therapy program
Delayed treatment
Participants randomized to this arm will be put on a waitlist for 5 weeks and will then receive the intervention.
Behavioral: Constant Therapy program
Constant Therapy program BEHAVIORAL
The Constant Therapy program includes includes 91 therapy exercise programs and participants can practice any of the exercises in the program for 50 hours (60 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 10 weeks).
What researchers are measuring
Outcome measures describe what is being studied. They are not proof that a treatment works.
Primary measures
Change in the Western Aphasia Battery Revised Aphasia Quotient
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The Western Aphasia Battery Revised Aphasia Quotient (WAB-R-AQ) is a standardized, gold-standard assessment for determining the presence, type, and severity of post-stroke aphasia. The WAB-R measures performance across a variety of expressive and receptive language domains. Weighted performance across four of these domains, namely spontaneous speech, auditory verbal comprehension, repetition, and naming/word finding, yields the WAB-R AQ, a composite score that ranges from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better language function.
Secondary measures
Western Aphasia Battery- Revised Language Quotient (WAB-R LQ)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The WAB-R measures performance across a variety of expressive and receptive language domains and takes approximately 45-60 minutes to administer. Weighted performance across four of these domains - spontaneous speech, auditory verbal comprehension, repetition, and naming/word finding - yields a composite score, the WAB-R Aphasia Quotient (AQ). The WAB-R AQ is an impairment-based metric that reliably indexes aphasia severity across different aphasia subtypes, making it ideal as a metric for studies with heterogenous patient samples as for the current study. In addition to the AQ, Language Quotients (LQ) can be obtained from a full administration of the WAB-R. LQ is a summary score encompassing both spoken and written language abilities. The LQ is scaled from 0 to 100, where higher numbers reflect stronger overall performance across the tested domains.
Western Aphasia Battery- Revised Cortical Quotient (WAB-R CQ)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The Cortical Quotient (CQ) is a summary score taking into account all subtests of the WAB-R, including not only spoken and written language but also apraxia, constructional, visuospatial and calculation tasks. Administration of tests to calculate CQ and LQ together take approximately 45 minutes. The CQ is scaled from 0 to 100, where higher numbers reflect stronger overall performance across the tested domains.
Boston Naming Test (BNT)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The BNT is one of the most widely used measures of confrontational naming, consisted of 60 line drawings of objects of graded difficulty. It consists of 60 black and white pictures that increase in the order of difficulty (pictures progressively include less frequent words). Scoring comprises accuracy out of 60 items. A point is typically given for items named spontaneously or correctly after a semantic cue (a category or description hint). For healthy, non-brain-damaged adults, average raw scores generally range from 50 to 59 out of 60, depending on age and education level (with normative means clustering around 53 to 55).
Pyramids and Palm Trees Test (PPTT)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The PPTT is a visual semantic association task designed to assess semantic memory and the ability to form and retrieve associations between concepts. For each triad, a target stimulus (e.g., a picture or word of a pyramid) is shown at the top, and two choice options (e.g., a palm tree vs. a fir tree) are shown at the bottom. The subject must point to or select the item that semantically matches the target. There are 52 trials. A score of 47 or higher (90% or better: ≥ 47/52) is generally considered normal, indicating no clinically significant semantic memory deficit. A score below 47 (less than 90%) indicates a clinically significant semantic memory impairment.
Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The RBANS provides a comprehensive assessment of general cognitive skills, including attention, memory, executive function, and visuospatial processing. The battery consists of 12 short subtests divided across five specific cognitive domains: Immediate Memory: List Learning, Story Memory, Visuospatial/Constructional: Figure Copy, Line Orientation, Language: Picture Naming, Semantic Fluency, Attention: Digit Span, Coding, Delayed Memory: List Recall, List Recognition, Story Recall, Figure Recall. Reported total scores range from 40 to 160, with scores 120 or higher as superior performance.
Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia-2 (RCBA-2)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The RCBA-2 provides a comprehensive evaluation of the nature and degree of reading impairments at single word-, sentence- and paragraph-level. Lower total scores indicate more severe acquired reading impairments (alexia) associated with aphasia or brain injury. Total score is 0-100 (10 core subtests), typical range is 97.32, whereas aphasic patients tend to score 18-99.
Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 (SAQOL-39)
Time frame: Baseline, immediately after the 10-week intervention
The SAQOL-39 consists of 39 questions to assess health-related quality of life in individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia with responses from 1 = Could not do it at all to 5 = No trouble at all. To calculate the scores, the mean (average) value rather than a cumulative sum is calculated and higher means suggest higher quality of life
Review the complete result tables and limitations in the official record.
Open official results ↗Research locations (1)
The overall study status and a local site’s status can differ. Confirm that location’s availability before traveling.
1 locations
Center for Brain Recovery, BU Charles River CampusBoston, Massachusetts, United StatesRecruiting
Study team and timeline
- Lead sponsor
- Boston University Charles River Campus
- Study start
- 2026-12 Estimated
- Primary completion
- 2031-07 Estimated
- Study completion
- 2032-07 Estimated
- First posted
- Nov 9, 2026 Actual
- Last updated
- Nov 10, 2026 Actual
Official study contacts
Official study title
Functional Reorganization and Recovery of the Language and Domain-general Multiple Demand Systems in Aphasia
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Source: ClinicalTrials.gov API v2. Information is submitted by sponsors and investigators. NLM does not approve the safety or science of all listed studies. Registry disclaimer.
Retrieved: Nov 11, 2026 · Last registry update: Nov 10, 2026