• Leonardo Bonilha, Chris Rorden, Rebecca Roth, Souvik Sen, Mark S George, and Julius Fridriksson.
• Neurology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, South Carolina, USA leonardo.bonilha@emory.edu.
• J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatr. 2024 Feb 14; 95 (3): 273276273-276.

BackgroundLanguage impairment (aphasia) is a common neurological deficit after strokes. For individuals with chronic aphasia (beyond 6 months after the stroke), language improvements with speech therapy (ST) are often limited. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising approach to complement language recovery but interindividual variability in treatment response is common after tDCS, suggesting a possible relationship between tDCS and type of linguistic impairment (aphasia type).MethodsThis current study is a subgroup analysis of a randomised controlled phase II futility design clinical trial on tDCS in chronic post-stroke aphasia. All participants received ST coupled with tDCS (n=31) vs sham tDCS (n=39). Confrontation naming was tested at baseline, and 1, 4, and 24 weeks post-treatment.ResultsBroca's aphasia was associated with maximal adjunctive benefit of tDCS, with an average improvement of 10 additional named items with tDCS+ST compared with ST alone at 4 weeks post-treatment. In comparison, tDCS was not associated with significant benefits for other aphasia types F(1)=4.23, p=0.04. Among participants with Broca's aphasia, preservation of the perilesional posterior inferior temporal cortex was associated with higher treatment benefit (R=0.35, p=0.03).ConclusionsThese results indicate that adjuvant tDCS can enhance ST to treat naming in Broca's aphasia, and this may guide intervention approaches in future studies.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

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