146. Excitatory deep transcranial magnetic stimulation with H-coil over the right homologous Broca’s region improves naming in chronic post-stroke aphasia

Abstract

The role of the right hemisphere in post-stroke aphasia recovery is still controversial and the effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right homologous Broca’s region have been seldom investigated. This study aimed to compare the effect of excitatory, inhibitory and sham rTMS delivered with H-coil over the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in chronic aphasic patients. Five right-handed post-stroke aphasic patients underwent a picture naming task before and immediately after each of three sessions of rTMS: excitatory (10 Hz), inhibitory (1 Hz) and sham rTMS, in random sequence and separated by at least 1 week. Only the excitatory 10 Hz stimulation was associated with a significant improvement in naming performance, ( p = 0.043) and was significantly more effective than 1 Hz rTMS ( p = 0.043). A single session of excitatory deep brain rTMS over the right IFG with H-coil significantly improves naming in right-handed chronic post-stroke aphasic patients. This result is in line with the hypothesis of a positive, rather than detrimental role, of the right hemisphere in chronic aphasia due to a left-hemispheric stroke.