iTalkBetter app significantly improves speech in stroke patients

Peer reviewed | Randomised Clinical Trial | People

2024-02-22

(Press-News.org) A UCL-developed app that provides speech therapy for people with the language disorder aphasia has been found to significantly improve their ability to talk.

iTalkBetter, developed by the Neurotherapeutics Group at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, provides users the digital platform to practice over 200 commonly used words, in their own time and without any limits on the amount of therapy they receive.

While employing games to maintain engagement, the app’s integrated speech recogniser analyses speech in real time to give the user feedback on whether they have named the displayed item correctly.

A new study, published in eClinicalMedicine, found that when used over a six-week period for around 90 minutes per day, iTalkBetter significantly improved patients’ ability to name items by 13% for the 200 commonly used words. Importantly, spontaneous speech was also found to improve.

Aphasia occurs when a person suffers brain damage, usually to the organ’s left side, leading to difficulties with speech or language. The most common causes are stroke, severe head injury and brain tumours.

Symptoms can vary widely from person to person. However, most people with aphasia have some trouble with their speaking, and may also experience issues with writing, reading and listening.

Currently, the NHS provides around 12 hours of speech and language therapy with further face-to-face therapy available via some charities or privately.

Corresponding author, Professor Alex Leff (UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), said: “Most health care systems massively under dose people with aphasia in terms of the hours of speech language therapy that they are provided with. App delivered therapy is one solution to this problem.

“This is the first randomised controlled trial of an app designed to improve speaking that transfers to a naturalistic speaking task and show an effect on connected speech.”

The researchers tested the app in a phase II randomised clinical trial on 27 people with aphasia as a result of a stroke, between September 2020 and March 2022.

Researchers also used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to see what happened in the brains of participants when using the app.

Structurally, they found that brain regions related to language perception, production and control increased in volume after practice with iTalkBetter.

Professor Leff added: “This is the first task-based fMRI study in people with aphasia to identify dose-related changes in brain function. The more people with aphasia practiced, the more they were able to activate key auditory processing areas in the undamaged hemisphere.”

iTalkBetter will soon be rolled out as an app available to all suitable patients to use.

The research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) with support from Wellcome.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Intravascular imaging significantly improves survival, safety, and outcomes in cardiovascular stenting procedures over conventional angiography

2024-02-22

Using intravascular imaging to guide stent implantation during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in heart disease patients significantly improves survival and reduces adverse cardiovascular events compared to angiography-guided PCI alone, the most commonly used method. These are the results from the largest and most comprehensive clinical study of its kind comparing two types of intravascular imaging methods (intravascular ultrasound, or IVUS, and optical coherence tomography, or OCT) with angiography-guided PCI. The study, published Wednesday, February 21, in The Lancet, is the first to show that these two methods of ...

Air pollution linked to increased hospital admission for major heart and lung diseases

2024-02-22

Short and long term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution is linked to an increased risk of hospital admission for major heart and lung diseases, find two large US studies, published by The BMJ today. Together, the results suggest that no safe threshold exists for heart and lung health. According to the Global Burden of Disease study, exposure to PM2.5 accounts for an estimated 7.6% of total global mortality and 4.2% of global disability adjusted life years (a measure of years lived in good health). In light of this extensive evidence, the World Health Organization ...

Children born in October least likely to get flu

2024-02-22

Children born in October are both more likely to be vaccinated against influenza and least likely to be diagnosed with influenza compared with children born in other months, finds a US study published by The BMJ today. The results suggest that birth month is associated with both timing of flu vaccination and the likelihood of a flu diagnosis - and that October is the optimal time for young children to have a flu shot, in line with current recommendations. Annual influenza vaccination is particularly important for young children, who are at higher risk of flu and severe ...

Uptake of HIV prevention medication doubles with mix of digital health interventions, study finds

2024-02-22

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 6:30 PM EST, Feb. 21, 2024 A UCLA Health-led study found a combination of interventions of one-on-one telehealth coaching, peer support forums, and automated text messages more than doubled the use of the HIV prevention strategy, called PrEP, among younger, at-risk Americans, a group that historically has had low use of the medication. The randomized controlled trial results, published in the journal Lancet Digital Health, tested combinations of interventions to improve HIV prevention behaviors, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, among younger Americans who have historically ...

Seaports are hotspots of contagious cancer in mussels

2024-02-22

Seaports act as hubs for the global spread of MtrBTN2,1 a rare contagious cancer affecting mussels. In this disease, cancer cells can be transmitted, like parasites, from one mussel to another nearby. While, in nature, such contagion mainly occurs between mussels in the same bed, ports and maritime transport facilitate the spread of MtrBTN2 to other locations, through biofouling, whereby diseased mussels attach themselves to ship hulls. This finding, the fruit of research by a team led by scientists from the CNRS and the University of Montpellier,2 will be published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B ...

Cancer leaders pens "letter to the world" calling for urgent investment as global cancer cases predicted to rise

2024-02-22

In their ‘letter to the world’ they say that cancer is a ‘defining health issue of our time’ that requires a united and collective worldwide response on a par with Covid-19. The scientists argue that we’re at a ‘tipping point’ that could transform how we understand and treat cancer – but more support for life-saving research is required to beat the disease. The letter is published as Cancer Research UK launched its More Research, Less Cancer campaign ...

Researchers use machine learning to predict how ingested drugs will interact with transport proteins

2024-02-22

Before orally administered drugs can make their way throughout the body, they must first bind to membrane proteins called drug transporters, which carry compounds across the intestinal tract and help them reach their intended targets. But because one drug can bind to several different drug transporters, they may struggle to get past this gut barrier, potentially leading to decreased drug absorption and efficacy. If another drug is added to the mix, interactions between the two compounds and their transporters can cause dangerous side effects. Researchers ...

New detection method aims to warn of landslide tsunamis

2024-02-22

University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers have devised a way to remotely detect large landslides within minutes of occurrence and to quickly determine whether they are close to open water and present a tsunami hazard. They write in a new paper that their method of determining a landslide’s location, volume and potential impact is rapid enough to support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s goal of issuing a tsunami warning within 5 minutes of a landslide. “The warming climate is causing glaciers to retreat, leaving behind valleys whose mountainsides and hillsides have lost their ...

Little groundwater recharge in ancient Mars aquifer, according to new models

2024-02-22

Mars was once a wet world. The geological record of the Red Planet shows evidence for water flowing on the surface – from river deltas to valleys carved by massive flash floods. But a new study shows that no matter how much rainfall fell on the surface of ancient Mars, very little of it seeped into an aquifer in the planet’s southern highlands. A graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin made the discovery by modeling groundwater recharge dynamics for the aquifer using a range of methods ...

Human-AI coworking

2024-02-21

Though artificial intelligence decreases human error in experimentation, human experts outperform AI when identifying causation or working with small data sets. To capitalize on AI and researcher strengths, ORNL scientists, in collaboration with colleagues at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, developed a human-AI collaboration recommender system for improved experimentation performance. During experiments, the system’s machine learning algorithms, described in npj Computational Materials, display preliminary ...

World's first practical surface-emitting laser for optical fiber communications developed: advancing miniaturization, energy efficiency, and cost reduction of light sources

Statins may reduce risk of death by 39% for patients with life-threatening sepsis

Paradigm shift: Chinese scientists transform "dispensable" spleen into universal regenerative hub

[Press-News.org] iTalkBetter app significantly improves speech in stroke patients
Peer reviewed | Randomised Clinical Trial | People

iTalkBetter app significantly improves speech in stroke patients

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: