• Paola Marangolo, Valentina Fiori, Margherita Di Paola, Susanna Cipollari, Carmelina Razzano, Massimiliano Oliveri, and Carlo Caltagirone.
• Facoltà di Medicina, Università Politecnica Marche, Ancona, Italy IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Roma, Italy. p.marangolo@univpm.it
• Restor. Neurol. Neurosci. 2013 Jan 1;31(1):63-72.

PurposeIn aphasic patients, some studies have already emphasized the efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) during the treatment of noun retrieval deficits. To date, in the same population, there are have been no studies addressing tDCS effects in the recovery of verb retrieval deficits. In this study, we wanted to test the potential of tDCS to improve verb production in a group of aphasic patients.MethodsSeven chronic subjects participated in an intensive language training for their difficulties in action naming. Each subject was treated with tDCS (20 min., 1 mA) over the left hemisphere in three different conditions: anodic tDCS over Wernicke's area, anodic tDCS and sham stimulation over Broca's area. Each experimental condition was performed in five consecutive daily sessions over three weeks with 6 days of intersession interval.ResultsIn all patients, results showed a significantly better response accuracy during the anodic tDCS over Broca's area with respect to the other two conditions which still persisted at one month after the end of the treatment suggesting a long-term effect on the recovery of their verb retrieval deficits.ConclusionThese findings further confirm that tDCS represents a useful new therapeutic interventions for the rehabilitation of lexical deficits in aphasic patients.

30 keywords...

hide…