Noninvasive Thalamocortical Neuromodulation With Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Persistent Developmental Stuttering
University of Michigan
Summary
This research is studying the use of low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU; a mild, noninvasive acoustic stimulation technique) in a small number of people to learn about its safety as a treatment for stuttering. LIFU is a small, safe sound signal that produces a gentle, pulsing flow of acoustic waves to help different parts of the brain communicate with each other. Researchers want to understand how the mild, non-invasive brain stimulation affects speech relevant brain areas, which may in turn affect speech fluency and speaking-related brain activity in people who stutter.
Description
This study will investigate whether Low-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (LIFU; also known as transcranial ultrasound stimulation, TUS) targeting the ventral intermediate (VIM) nucleus of the thalamus can safely and feasibly modulate neural activity and improve speech fluency in adults with Persistent Developmental Stuttering (PDS). Adult participants with PDS will be recruited through community advertisements and from existing institutional research registries, including individuals who have previously participated in noninvasive neuromodulation studies and have consented to be re-contacted for…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * have normal language, hearing and cognition * speak English as their primary language * currently stutter * score at least 10 (very mild) on the Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI-4) or exhibit greater than 3% stuttered syllables during at least one of the first 3 speech samples * have not receive any treatment for stuttering within the past year Exclusion Criteria: * History of seizures * Major medical or neurological illness (e.g., stroke, serious head trauma, brain infection, Parkinson's disease, etc.) * History of closed head injury with loss of consciousness (e.g…
Interventions
- DeviceHigh DC LIFU
Stimulation parameters and target location. Stimulation will be delivered using the BrainSonix BXPulser 10002 System (BrainSonix Corporation, Sherman Oaks, CA, USA). Sonication Parameters will be as follows. Fundamental frequency: 650 kHz; pulse repetition frequency: 10Hz; pulse duration: 100ms; DC: 70% (yielding pulse width of 70 ms); sonication duration: 30 s; inter-sonication interval: 30s; LIFU-ON epochs per block: 12 epochs (Jang et al., 2025). During active stimulation a total of 4.2 min stimulation will be applied across all LIFU-ON epochs. Both active and sham stimulation sessions will last \~12 mins each. The researchers will be targeting ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) region of the thalamus for the active stimulation.
- DeviceSham
Stimulation parameters and target location. Stimulation will be delivered using the BrainSonix BXPulser 10002 System (BrainSonix Corporation, Sherman Oaks, CA, USA). Sonication Parameters will be as follows. Fundamental frequency: 650 kHz; pulse repetition frequency: 10Hz; pulse duration: 100ms; DC: 70% (yielding pulse width of 70 ms); sonication duration: 30 s; inter-sonication interval: 30s; LIFU-ON epochs per block: 12 epochs (Jang et al., 2025). During sham stimulation a total of 4.2 min stimulation will be applied across all LIFU-ON epochs. Both active and sham stimulation sessions will last \~12 mins each. The researchers will be targeting anterior nucleus of thalamus (ANT) as the sham control with previous literature utilizing ANT-LIFU as a non-motor thalamus modulation.
Location
- University of MichiganAnn Arbor, Michigan