Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts, 02114, United States
Location status: Recruiting
Location contact
Erin Donahue, PhD
CONTACT
Robert M Richardson, MD, PhD
CONTACT
Robert M Richardson, MD, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
Recruiting
NCT Number: NCT05222594
Computational Neuroscience of Language Processing in the Human Brain
Language is a signature human cognitive skill, but the precise computations that support language understanding remain unknown. This study aims to combine high-quality human neural data obtained through intracranial recordings with advances in computational modeling of human cognition to shed light on the construction and understanding of speech.
Recruiting
Interested in participating?
Request InfoKey information
Conditions
Age range
18 year–85 year
Sex eligibility
All sexes
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Not applicable
Primary location
About this study
The neural architecture of language is the foundation for the highest form of human interaction. Prior work has identified a network of frontal and temporal brain areas that selectively support language processing, but the precise computations that underlie our ability to extract meaning from sequences of words have remained unknown. The standard approaches in human cognitive neuroscience lack the spatial and temporal resolution necessary for precise comparisons to computational models. To bridge this gap in knowledge, neural responses to language stimuli will be collected from epileptic patients undergoing intracranial monitoring. Overall, these data will be used to identify cortical maps of different linguistic manipulations and to better understand properties of the human language network.
Who can participate
Healthy volunteers accepted: No
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
- clinical indications to proceed with intracranial monitoring involving the left cerebral hemisphere, as determined by a multidisciplinary epilepsy surgery team
- the ability to comply with test directions and provide informed consent
- between ages 18 - 85
Exclusion criteria
- inability to understand or perform the task outlined in the protocol, or who are unwilling or unable to participate
Treatment and study plan
Behavioral tasks during intracranial monitoring
OtherParticipants will listen to sentences and stories while neural data are recorded through electrodes placed for clinical purposes.
Primary outcomes
-
Cortical maps of linguistic responses
Time frame: Throughout intracranial monitoring period, up to approximately 10 days
By using sEEG intracranial recordings of the brain, EEG power in frequency bands will reflect cortical maps of responses to different linguistic manipulations, informing the functional organization of the human language system. Power is measured in arbitrary units; higher power reflects greater activity at the investigated frequency.
-
Neural time-courses during naturalistic language comprehension
Time frame: Throughout intracranial monitoring period, up to approximately 10 days
Time-courses of neural response to language across diverse parts of the language network. These data will be used to predict across-time variation in response strength from the properties of linguistic input.
-
Brain scores for diverse artificial neural network (ANN) language models
Time frame: Throughout intracranial monitoring period, up to approximately 10 days
Human neural data will be compared to ANN language models to test how well these models predict human responses to language and why. There are no minimum or maximum scores. Higher values mean better model predictivity (i.e., a better match between model representations and neural responses).
Study contacts
Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.
Sponsors and collaborators
Lead sponsor
Massachusetts General Hospital
Other
Collaborators
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Registry information
Important dates
- Study start
- 2021
- Primary completion
- 2027
- Study completion
- 2027
- First posted
- Feb 3, 2022
- Registry last updated
- May 7, 2026
OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.
View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.
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