NCT02674490.

Trial name or title	Stimulating Language in Subacute StrokE (SLISSE)
Methods	RCT
Participants	Estimated enrolment: 50 Inclusion criteria: acute ischaemic left hemisphere stroke, fluent speakers of English by self‐report, being capable of giving informed consent or indicating another to provide informed consent, age 18 or older, premorbidly right handed, within 3 months of onset of stroke, aphasia diagnosis as confirmed by the Western Aphasia Battery‒Revised, at least 65% accuracy on screening task (comparable to treatment task) on 1 of 3 attempts Exclusion criteria: previous neurological or psychiatric disease, including previous symptomatic stroke, seizures during the previous 12 months, uncorrected visual loss or hearing loss by self‐report, use of medications that lower the seizure threshold (e.g. methylphenidate, amphetamine salts), use of NMDA antagonists (e.g. memantine), history of brain surgery or any metal in the head, scalp sensitivity (per participant report)
Interventions	2 arms: ‐ A‐tDCS (1 mA) plus speech and language treatment for 15 sessions (20 minutes per each 45‐minute treatment session) over the course of 3 weeks ‐ S‐tDCS plus speech and language treatment for 15 sessions (20 minutes per each 45‐minute treatment session) over the course of 3 weeks
Outcomes	Primary outcome measure: ‐ change in accuracy of naming untrained pictures (Philadelphia Naming Test) pre‐ to post‐treatment Secondary outcome measures: ‐ change in accuracy of naming untrained pictures at 5 and 20 weeks post treatment ‐ change in content of picture description pre‐ to post‐treatment immediately before and within 1 week after treatment ‐ change in efficiency of picture description pre‐ to post‐treatment immediately before and within 1 week after treatment ‐ change in content of picture description pre‐treatment to 5 weeks and 20 weeks post treatment ‐ change in efficiency of picture description pre‐treatment to 5 weeks and 20 weeks post treatment ‐ change in Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) pre‐treatment to post‐treatment
Starting date	1 April 2016
Contact information	Argye B Hillis‐Trupe, MD, MA 410‐614‐2381 argye@jhmi.edu
Notes