Transcranial Stimulation Combined With Auditory Training

N/ANot Yet RecruitingNCT06738030

Boston University Charles River Campus94 enrolled

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if non-invasive brain stimulation (called transcranial stimulation) can enhance the benefits from auditory training in people who struggle to understand one talker when many people are talking at the same time. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Does transcranial stimulation improve speech-on-speech understanding in people who struggle with this task? * Does transcranial stimulation enhance the benefits of a commercially available auditory training program? Researchers will compare transcranial stimulation to sham stimulation (no stimulation is applied during the listening task). Participants will: * Receive login information to an online auditory training program to complete at home over 2 weeks * Visit the laboratory 4 times to receive transcranial stimulation while listening to speech-on-speech: once before at-home training, two times during the at-home training period, and once after at-home training has ended

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Difficulties Understanding Speech in Noise

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 50 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * 50 years of age or older * Audiometric thresholds that do not exceed 90 dB HL at any frequency from 250-6000 Hz * Able to provide informed consent and understand experimental instructions * Able to read print on a computer screen * Difficulty with speech-on-speech understanding * Access to computer or mobile phone with access to internet that can play sound (for the at-home training) Exclusion Criteria: * Non-native speakers of English * History of skull fracture, scalp tissue damage, metallic implants around the head, seizures, neurological disorders, or traumatic brain injury, current or suspected pregnancy

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Speech-on-speech intelligibility percent correct

Percent correct score on the speech-on-speech task assessed in the lab

Time frame: From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks

Pupillometry measured listening effort

The peak pupil dilation subtracted from pre-trial baseline pupil dilation, averaged across trials in a block, assessed in the lab

Time frame: From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks

QuickSIN SNR Loss

A speech-in-noise test assessed as part of the at-home auditory training program

Time frame: Days 1, 6, and 14 of the two-week auditory training

Hearing Handicap Inventory

A listening effort questionnaire given as part of the at-home auditory training program

Time frame: Days 1 and 14 of the two-week auditory training program