The goal of this study is to verify whether the use of deep brain stimulation can improve motor function of the hand and arm and speech abilities for people following a stroke. Participants will undergo a surgical procedure to implant deep brain stimulation electrode leads. The electrodes will be connected to external stimulators and a series of experiments will be performed to identify the types of movements that the hand and arm can make and how speech abilities are affected by the stimulation. The implant will be removed after less than 30 days. Results of this study will provide the foundation for future studies evaluating the efficacy of a minimally-invasive neuro-technology that can be used in clinical neuro-rehabilitation programs to restore speech and upper limb motor functions in people with subcortical strokes, thereby increasing independence and quality of life.
Participants must have suffered a single, ischemic, or hemorrhagic stroke more than 6 months before the time of enrollment with dysarthria as a result.
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).
English speaker.
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.
Patients who refuse participation in the study.
Patients with gross anatomical variances in MR imaging or cerebral vascular accidents involving thalamic and cerebellar areas.
Patients with no clinical condition to undergo DBS implantation or highly dependent on anticoagulation therapy.
Patients who cannot undergo pre-operative MRIs or could not complete the pre-operative assessments.
Jorge Gonzalez-Martinez
Lead sponsor
University of Pittsburgh
Sponsor institution