SpeechNCT06233513
Vowel Space Expansion Sensorimotor Adaptation
A study testing Exp 3 Speaking Task in people with Speech, run by University of Wisconsin, Madison at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
The purpose of this research study is to understand how the brain processes and controls speech in healthy people. The investigators are doing this research because it will help identify the mechanisms that allow people to perceive their own speech errors and to learn new speech sounds. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Speech
- What is being tested?
- Exp 3 Speaking Task
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 117 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 15 Feb 2024to Nov 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- English-speaking adults
- normal hearing and speech
- no history of stroke or neurological conditions
Who cannot join
- Native language other than English
- Any neurological disorders other than the disorder of interest
- Any history of hearing disorders
- Uncorrected vision problems that prevent participants from seeing visually-presented stimuli
- Significant cognitive impairments that prevent participants from carrying out the task or from giving informed consent
- Vulnerable populations (minors and prisoners)
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin, 53705
Carrie Niziolek, PhD, 608-890-0192, cniziolek@wisc.edu
About this study
Official title: Behavioral and Neural Measures of Speech Motor Control
The purpose of this research study is to understand how the brain processes and controls speech in healthy people. The investigators are doing this research because it will help identify the mechanisms that allow people to perceive their own speech errors and to learn new speech sounds. 117 participants will be enrolled into this part of the study and can expect to be on study between 1 day (Experiment 1) and 4 weeks (Experiment 2).
Read the detailed description
The overall study (Establishing the clinical utility of sensorimotor adaptation for speech rehabilitation) aims to understand how cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes are integrated in the control of speech movements. The investigators study how this complex skill is performed in healthy speakers to understand how this system functions, how this skill relates to the perception of speech, and what role different parts of the brain play in this process. Different studies look at how speech motor control is executed, maintained, and changed. Overall, the study will recruit 329 participants over the course of 5 years. Participants can expect to be on study for up to 4 weeks.
The entire study is composed of 8 experiments and 6 interventions. The present record represents Experiments 1-4: 1) Generalization of Vowel Space Expansion to Untrained Words and Vowels; 2) Retention of Vowel Space Expansion After Training in Multiple Sessions; 3) Vowel Space Expansion Training With Connected Speech, and 4)The Relationship Between Acuity, Variability, and Adaptation in Vowels. The paradigms in Experiments 1-3 all involve speech production under conditions of altered auditory feedback, while Experiment 4 is a correlative analysis that compares data from Experiments 1 and 2.
The Experiment 1 paradigm tests how the vowel space expansion induced by sensorimotor adaptation generalizes to untrained items in a single session. Participants will produce four training words (bead, bad, bod, and booed) under a vowel centralization feedback paradigm in which auditory feedback is altered, training them to produce these words with more vowel contrast. In addition to these trained words, eight test items will be produced in pre-training and post-training phases only. We will compare to measure how learning transfers across words that share the same vowel (test words: keep, cap, cop, coop) or whose vowels are intermediate to those of the trained words and which share consonants with the trained words (test words: bid, bud, bade, bode).
The Experiment 2 paradigm tests how the vowel space expansion induced by sensorimotor adaptation is retained over time. Participants will complete eight sessions of the vowel centralization sensorimotor adaptation paradigm over four weeks, producing four training words (bead, bad, bod, and booed) under conditions of altered auditory feedback that train them to produce these words with more vowel contrast. We will measure changes in produced vowels at the start of each session in a baseline phase to assess how much retained across days and weeks.
The Experiment 3 paradigm tests whether vowel space expansion can be evoked by a vowel centralization feedback paradigm applied to running speech (full sentences) rather than single words in healthy speakers. Participants will produce sentences from the Harvard corpus while their speech feedback is altered to centralize vowel feedback. The investigators will measure how working vowel space increases under this paradigm.
Experiment 4 is a correlative analysis which tests whether sensory acuity and speech production variability can predict magnitude of sensorimotor adaptation in interventions 1 and 2. Auditory acuity will be measured through a phoneme discrimination task in which vowel sounds are played to participants over headphones; somatosensory acuity will be measured through a tactile discrimination task in which participants report the orientation (horizontal or vertical) of the gratings on a plastic dome pressed lightly into the tongue. Speech production variability will be measured as the formant variability in the baseline phase of the sensorimotor adaptation experiments in interventions 1 and 2. These measures will be correlated with sensorimotor adaptation magnitude found in the prior interventions.
- Conditions
- Speech
- Being tested
- Exp 3 Speaking Task
- Keywords
- speech motor control, vocal learning
- Medical subject headings
- Speech
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Exp 3 Speaking TaskBehavioural
Also called vowel space expansion
Participant will sit in front of a computer screen in a quiet room and to produce speech based on what is on the screen. Participant may see real words or nonsense words to read. Investigators may play sounds through headphones and ask the participant to repeat them. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. This task takes about one hour to complete.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy Adult Speakers | Experimental | healthy adult participants across the lifespan in three groups:18-35, 36-55, and 56+ Receives: Behavioral: Exp 3 Speaking Task |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Average Vowel Spacing (AVS) Measured as the Mean of Pairwise Formant Distances Between Vowels
AVS is a local measure of vowel spacing.
Measured: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Quadrilateral Vowel Space Area (qVSA)
qVSA measures the area (in Hz^2) between the F1/F2 coordinates of the corner vowels. This is a global measure of working vowel space.
Measured: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Intelligibility measured by Percent of words correctly identified by 5 independent transcribers
Intelligibility is a perceptual measure. Four repetitions of each spoken production from each adaptation phase, as well as the minimal-pair neighbors from the calibration phase, will be identified by all transcribers. Because intelligibility in healthy speakers is expected to be near ceiling, speech signals will be masked by speech-shaped noise and delivered at 72 dB over closed-ear headphones. Signal-to-noise ratio will be determined prior to testing as the ratio where, on average, 50% of stimuli in the calibration phase are correctly identified. Transcribers will be native English speakers with no history of neurological/hearing disorders who pass a pure-tone hearing test.
Measured: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua: /i/-/ɪ/, /ɛ/-/æ/, /u/-/ʊ/, and /ɑ/-/ʌ/. Acuity will be measured at continua midpoint (across-category acuity) and at the four corner vowel endpoints (within-category acuity). JNDs will be measured through a 4-interval, 2-alternative forced choice task (AABA or ABAA) via a staircase procedure.
Measured: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted31 Jan 2024
- Study start15 Feb 2024
- Primary completionNov 2026 (estimated)
- Study completionNov 2026 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for SpeechStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 117 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Carrie Niziolek, PhD, Principal investigator, University of Wisconsin, Madison
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06233513
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 2017-1128 Adaptation (Exp 1-4)
- Other IDs
- Protocol Version 10/31/2021, A481800, 1R01DC019134-01A1
- Status last verified
- Oct 2026
- First submitted
- 22 Jan 2024
- Last updated
- 26 Oct 2026
- Results posted
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 26 Oct 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Behavioral and Neural Measures of Speech Motor Control
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06233513
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 2017-1128 Adaptation (Exp 1-4)
- Conditions
- Speech
- Keywords
- speech motor control, vocal learning
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 117 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- University of Wisconsin, MadisonUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
- Study start
- 15 Feb 2024 (actual)
- Primary completion
- Nov 2026 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Nov 2026 (estimated)
- First posted
- 31 Jan 2024 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
The purpose of this research study is to understand how the brain processes and controls speech in healthy people. The investigators are doing this research because it will help identify the mechanisms that allow people to perceive their own speech errors and to learn new speech sounds. 117 participants will be enrolled into this part of the study and can expect to be on study between 1 day (Experiment 1) and 4 weeks (Experiment 2).
Detailed description
The overall study (Establishing the clinical utility of sensorimotor adaptation for speech rehabilitation) aims to understand how cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes are integrated in the control of speech movements. The investigators study how this complex skill is performed in healthy speakers to understand how this system functions, how this skill relates to the perception of speech, and what role different parts of the brain play in this process. Different studies look at how speech motor control is executed, maintained, and changed. Overall, the study will recruit 329 participants over the course of 5 years. Participants can expect to be on study for up to 4 weeks.
The entire study is composed of 8 experiments and 6 interventions. The present record represents Experiments 1-4: 1) Generalization of Vowel Space Expansion to Untrained Words and Vowels; 2) Retention of Vowel Space Expansion After Training in Multiple Sessions; 3) Vowel Space Expansion Training With Connected Speech, and 4)The Relationship Between Acuity, Variability, and Adaptation in Vowels. The paradigms in Experiments 1-3 all involve speech production under conditions of altered auditory feedback, while Experiment 4 is a correlative analysis that compares data from Experiments 1 and 2.
The Experiment 1 paradigm tests how the vowel space expansion induced by sensorimotor adaptation generalizes to untrained items in a single session. Participants will produce four training words (bead, bad, bod, and booed) under a vowel centralization feedback paradigm in which auditory feedback is altered, training them to produce these words with more vowel contrast. In addition to these trained words, eight test items will be produced in pre-training and post-training phases only. We will compare to measure how learning transfers across words that share the same vowel (test words: keep, cap, cop, coop) or whose vowels are intermediate to those of the trained words and which share consonants with the trained words (test words: bid, bud, bade, bode).
The Experiment 2 paradigm tests how the vowel space expansion induced by sensorimotor adaptation is retained over time. Participants will complete eight sessions of the vowel centralization sensorimotor adaptation paradigm over four weeks, producing four training words (bead, bad, bod, and booed) under conditions of altered auditory feedback that train them to produce these words with more vowel contrast. We will measure changes in produced vowels at the start of each session in a baseline phase to assess how much retained across days and weeks.
The Experiment 3 paradigm tests whether vowel space expansion can be evoked by a vowel centralization feedback paradigm applied to running speech (full sentences) rather than single words in healthy speakers. Participants will produce sentences from the Harvard corpus while their speech feedback is altered to centralize vowel feedback. The investigators will measure how working vowel space increases under this paradigm.
Experiment 4 is a correlative analysis which tests whether sensory acuity and speech production variability can predict magnitude of sensorimotor adaptation in interventions 1 and 2. Auditory acuity will be measured through a phoneme discrimination task in which vowel sounds are played to participants over headphones; somatosensory acuity will be measured through a tactile discrimination task in which participants report the orientation (horizontal or vertical) of the gratings on a plastic dome pressed lightly into the tongue. Speech production variability will be measured as the formant variability in the baseline phase of the sensorimotor adaptation experiments in interventions 1 and 2. These measures will be correlated with sensorimotor adaptation magnitude found in the prior interventions.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Not applicable
- Intervention model
- Single group
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 1
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Healthy Adult Speakers | Experimental | Behavioral: Exp 3 Speaking Taskhealthy adult participants across the lifespan in three groups:18-35, 36-55, and 56+ |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (3 listed)
- English-speaking adults
- normal hearing and speech
- no history of stroke or neurological conditions
Key exclusion criteria (6 listed)
- Native language other than English
- Any neurological disorders other than the disorder of interest
- Any history of hearing disorders
- Uncorrected vision problems that prevent participants from seeing visually-presented stimuli
- Significant cognitive impairments that prevent participants from carrying out the task or from giving informed consent
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Exp 3 Speaking TaskAlso: vowel space expansionParticipant will sit in front of a computer screen in a quiet room and to produce speech based on what is on the screen. Participant may see real words or nonsense words to read. Investigators may play sounds through headphones and ask the participant to repeat them. Participant speech will be recorded by a microphone. This task takes about one hour to complete. | Behavioural | Healthy Adult Speakers |
Primary outcome
Average Vowel Spacing (AVS) Measured as the Mean of Pairwise Formant Distances Between Vowels
Time frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
AVS is a local measure of vowel spacing.
Quadrilateral Vowel Space Area (qVSA)
Time frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
qVSA measures the area (in Hz^2) between the F1/F2 coordinates of the corner vowels. This is a global measure of working vowel space.
Intelligibility measured by Percent of words correctly identified by 5 independent transcribers
Time frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Intelligibility is a perceptual measure. Four repetitions of each spoken production from each adaptation phase, as well as the minimal-pair neighbors from the calibration phase, will be identified by all transcribers. Because intelligibility in healthy speakers is expected to be near ceiling, speech signals will be masked by speech-shaped noise and delivered at 72 dB over closed-ear headphones. Signal-to-noise ratio will be determined prior to testing as the ratio where, on average, 50% of stimuli in the calibration phase are correctly identified. Transcribers will be native English speakers with no history of neurological/hearing disorders who pass a pure-tone hearing test.
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua
Time frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)
Auditory acuity is measured as the average just noticeable difference (JND) along 4 vowel formant continua: /i/-/ɪ/, /ɛ/-/æ/, /u/-/ʊ/, and /ɑ/-/ʌ/. Acuity will be measured at continua midpoint (across-category acuity) and at the four corner vowel endpoints (within-category acuity). JNDs will be measured through a 4-interval, 2-alternative forced choice task (AABA or ABAA) via a staircase procedure.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 26 Oct 2026.
- Link to study record for experiment 7 \[NCT05723575\]Link provided by the sponsor.
- Link to study record for experiment 5 \[NCT05286658\]Link provided by the sponsor.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes
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Healthy Volunteer
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
Carrie Niziolek, PhD principal investigator
University of Wisconsin, Madison
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Exp 3 Speaking Task in people with Speech, run by University of Wisconsin, Madison at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 6 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 26 Oct 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Carrie Niziolek, PhD (608-890-0192, cniziolek@wisc.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Average Vowel Spacing (AVS) Measured as the Mean of Pairwise Formant Distances Between Vowels (time frame: up to 1 hour (Exp 1,3); eight visits of 1 hour each over 4 weeks (Exp 2)). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 26 Oct 2026.