Category Learning Training for Language Disorder

(Time2Learn Trial)

Recruiting at 1 trial location

Overseen By Frances Earle, PhD

Age: 18 - 65

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Delaware

Must not be taking: Sleep medications

Disqualifiers: Neurological, psychiatric, socio-emotional, others

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: 25

540 Participants Needed

Trial Summary

What is the purpose of this trial?

Approximately 7% of the population experiences developmental language disorder (DLD), a language disorder with unclear causes. DLD affects communication beyond adolescence and poses challenges for education and career advancement due to difficulties in learning and memory. Recent research suggests that adults with DLD struggle with overnight memory consolidation, indicating a need for effective learning and memory support. This project aims to determine the optimal training schedule for perceptual memory retention in adults with and without DLD. The study involves recruiting 240 adults (120 with DLD, 120 without) for speech-perceptual training with different training schedules. The researchers predict that the manipulation of training schedules will interact with circadian preference and overnight consolidation, leading to the discovery of the best practice schedule for speech sound retention. Additionally, 300 more adults (150 with DLD, 150 without) will be recruited to investigate how optimal training schedules interact with reflexive and reflective learning strategies. The time course of learning and retention will be tracked during reflexive and reflective categorization training in six different training schedules.

Do I need to stop taking my current medications for the trial?

If you are on prescription medications that alter sleep, you may need to stop taking them to participate in this trial.

What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment Perceptual category training, Speech-perceptual training, Perceptual memory training, Category learning training for language disorder?

Research shows that perceptual training can improve the ability to identify speech sounds, as seen in studies where training helped listeners better understand vowels from individuals with speech disorders. Additionally, phonemic discrimination training has been shown to significantly enhance language processing skills in children, suggesting that similar training could benefit those with language disorders. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

Is Category Learning Training for Language Disorder safe for humans?

The research does not provide specific safety data for Category Learning Training, but it suggests that auditory training, a related method, can cause changes in brain activity without harmful effects. This implies that similar training methods are generally safe for humans. ^{5 6 7 8 9}

How does perceptual category training differ from other treatments for language disorders?

Perceptual category training is unique because it focuses on improving the brain's ability to categorize sounds, which is often disrupted in language disorders. This approach targets the procedural learning system, which is different from other treatments that may not specifically address this underlying cognitive process. ^{3 4 8 10 11}

Eligibility Criteria

This trial is for native American English speakers aged 18-55 with normal vision and hearing. It's designed for adults both with developmental language disorder (DLD) and without any language impairments. Participants need internet access and headphones to join the online activities. Those with neurological, psychiatric, or socio-emotional disorders or on sleep-altering meds cannot participate.

Inclusion Criteria

I am a native American English speaker.

You must fit the requirements to be in either the TD or DLD group.

You have normal vision and hearing.

Exclusion Criteria

You have had mental health problems in the past.

I have a history of neurological disorders.

I am taking medication that affects my sleep.

Timeline

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Training

Participants undergo speech-perceptual training in one of six different schedules over 24 hours

24 hours

Multiple sessions within 24 hours

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for speech discrimination and category identification performance

1 week

1 event-related potential (ERP) session

Extended Training

Additional training to investigate interaction with reflexive and reflective learning strategies

Varies based on training schedule

Treatment Details

Interventions

• Perceptual category training

Trial Overview The study tests how different training schedules affect learning speech sounds in adults with and without DLD. It involves perceptual category training across six schedules to find out which one best supports memory retention, considering circadian preferences and overnight consolidation.

Participant Groups

Group I: Distributed Morning Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the morning, followed by a two 30 min trainings 12 and 24 hours later

Group II: Distributed Evening Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the evening, followed by a two 30 min trainings 12 and 24 hours later

Group III: Blocked Morning-Evening Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the morning, followed by a one hour training 12 hours later

Group IV: Blocked Morning Only Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the morning, followed by a one hour training 24 hours later

Group V: Blocked Evening-Morning Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the evening, followed by a one hour training 12 hours later

Group VI: Blocked Evening Only Training Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

One hour training in the evening, followed by a one hour training 24 hours later

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Delaware

Lead Sponsor

Trials

167

Recruited

25,700+

Northeastern University

Collaborator

Trials

103

Recruited

72,600+

Findings from Research

Perceptual training significantly improved typical listeners' ability to identify vowels produced by speakers with dysarthria, indicating that targeted training can enhance vowel recognition skills.

Listeners were able to generalize their training from front vowels to back vowels and from one speaker to another, but not the other way around, suggesting specific patterns of learning that could inform future clinical training methods.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Perceptual Learning of Altered Vowel Space Improves Identification of Vowels Produced by Individuals With Dysarthria Secondary to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Olmstead, AJ., Lee, J., Chen, J.[2022]

Phonemic contrast discrimination training significantly improved phonological awareness and word discrimination in 18 children aged 8 to 10, with age-equivalent scores increasing by about 2 years after 12 training sessions over 4 weeks.

The improvements in phonological awareness were maintained even 5-6 weeks after the training, while no such improvements were observed in the control group participating in regular classroom activities.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Discrimination training of phonemic contrasts enhances phonological processing in mainstream school children. Moore, DR., Rosenberg, JF., Coleman, JS.[2006]

Training adults to categorize speech sounds improved their ability to distinguish between different categories of sounds, indicating that targeted training can enhance categorical perception.

Neural imaging revealed that the middle frontal gyri are involved in encoding learned speech categories, suggesting that higher-level cognitive processes in the frontal lobes may influence how we perceive and categorize speech sounds.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Effects of category learning on neural sensitivity to non-native phonetic categories. Myers, EB., Swan, K.[2021]

Children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) showed impaired ability to learn auditory categories through procedural learning methods, while their rule-based learning remained intact, indicating a specific deficit in procedural learning.

The study highlights that children with DLD have slower adaptation to optimal procedural strategies, supporting the idea that language disorders may stem from difficulties in procedural learning systems, which can affect their ability to form stable linguistic representations.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Procedural auditory category learning is selectively disrupted in developmental language disorder. Derawi, H., Roark, CL., Gabay, Y.[2023]

In a study involving 20 adults, exposure to similar-sounding speech syllables led to enhanced neural activity over time, particularly in those who engaged in an identification task, suggesting that stimulus exposure can modify brain processing of sounds.

The observed physiological changes in brain activity persisted for months, indicating that even without formal training, repeated exposure to auditory stimuli can lead to long-lasting changes in how the brain responds to sounds, although these changes did not translate into improved perceptual skills.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Repeated stimulus exposure alters the way sound is encoded in the human brain. Tremblay, KL., Inoue, K., McClannahan, K., et al.[2022]

Training can lead to changes in brain activity before any noticeable improvement in behavior, indicating that learning can happen at a level we can't consciously see.

Neurophysiological measurements can be used to assess the effectiveness of auditory training in children with learning deficits or individuals using hearing aids, suggesting that if brain changes occur, behavioral improvements are likely to follow.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The time course of auditory perceptual learning: neurophysiological changes during speech-sound training. Tremblay, K., Kraus, N., McGee, T.[2022]

Auditory training significantly improved the ability of 17 undergraduate Speech-Language Pathology students to assess voice quality, particularly in analyzing asthenia, after nine 15-minute training sessions.

Despite some challenges with the roughness parameter, the overall training helped maintain and enhance students' assessment skills, indicating its effectiveness in educational settings.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Impact of auditory training for perceptual assessment of voice executed by undergraduate students in Speech-Language Pathology. Silva, RS., Simões-Zenari, M., Nemr, NK.[2019]

Participants who underwent audiovisual (AV) training showed significantly better accuracy in identifying vocoded speech compared to those who received audio-only (AO) training, indicating that AV training enhances auditory perceptual learning.

However, alternating between AV and AO training revealed that AO training was more effective for learning, suggesting that early integration of visual information may sometimes hinder the development of auditory skills.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Auditory Perceptual Learning for Speech Perception Can be Enhanced by Audiovisual Training. Bernstein, LE., Auer, ET., Eberhardt, SP., et al.[2021]

Older listeners, even those with mild-to-moderate high-frequency hearing loss, can still effectively engage in lexically guided perceptual learning, indicating that this ability is resilient despite hearing challenges.

The study found that attention-switching control influences perceptual learning; listeners with poorer attention-switching control experienced a stronger learning effect, suggesting that reliance on acoustic information varies with attentional abilities.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The role of attentional abilities in lexically guided perceptual learning by older listeners. Scharenborg, O., Weber, A., Janse, E.[2018]

All four training protocols significantly improved participants' ability to accurately reproduce time-compressed sentences compared to a control group, indicating that perceptual learning can enhance speech perception in adults.

Training that began with easier, less distorted speech resulted in better overall gains in understanding and reproducing both trained and novel sentences, suggesting that starting with simpler tasks may be more effective than immediately using difficult, highly distorted speech.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The perceptual learning of time-compressed speech: A comparison of training protocols with different levels of difficulty. Gabay, Y., Karni, A., Banai, K.[2019]

Individuals with dyslexia showed impaired ability to learn categories based on information-integration, indicating a disruption in the procedural memory system, while their rule-based category learning remained intact.

The study suggests that dyslexia may involve inefficiencies in procedural learning strategies, which could contribute to difficulties in acquiring phonetic categories, highlighting the existence of multiple systems for category learning.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Impaired and Spared Auditory Category Learning in Developmental Dyslexia. Gabay, Y., Roark, CL., Holt, LL.[2023]

References

1. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Perceptual Learning of Altered Vowel Space Improves Identification of Vowels Produced by Individuals With Dysarthria Secondary to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. [2022]

2. Netherlands pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Discrimination training of phonemic contrasts enhances phonological processing in mainstream school children. [2006]

3. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Effects of category learning on neural sensitivity to non-native phonetic categories. [2021]

4. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Procedural auditory category learning is selectively disrupted in developmental language disorder. [2023]

5. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Repeated stimulus exposure alters the way sound is encoded in the human brain. [2022]

6. England pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The time course of auditory perceptual learning: neurophysiological changes during speech-sound training. [2022]

7. Brazil pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Impact of auditory training for perceptual assessment of voice executed by undergraduate students in Speech-Language Pathology. [2019]

8. Switzerland pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Auditory Perceptual Learning for Speech Perception Can be Enhanced by Audiovisual Training. [2021]

9. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The role of attentional abilities in lexically guided perceptual learning by older listeners. [2018]

10. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The perceptual learning of time-compressed speech: A comparison of training protocols with different levels of difficulty. [2019]

11. United States pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Impaired and Spared Auditory Category Learning in Developmental Dyslexia. [2023]