Abstract
We evaluated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in two different montages could improve picture naming abilities in participants with anomic Alzheimer Disease or Frontotemporal dementia.MethodsUtilizing a double-blind cross-over design, twelve participants were trained on picture naming over a series of 10 sessions with 30 min of anodal (2 mA) tDCS stimulation to either the left inferior parietotemporal region (P3), the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F3), or sham stimulation. We evaluated performance on a trained picture naming list, an equivalent novel untrained list, and additional neuropsychological tasks.ResultsFor trained item picture naming, significantly larger improvement was seen for real stimulation vs. sham stimulation for both the DLPFC and left inferior parieto-temporal stimulation montages at the end of the stimulation sessions. The parieto-temporal montage remained superior to sham 2 weeks poststimulation. Significant improvement vs. sham was also seen for novel “untrained” item picture naming 2 weeks post-stimulation when the parieto-temporal montage was given, whereas no change was observed when the DLPFC montage was given. Finally, comparing groups when they received the parieto-temporal montage, participants with semantic variant Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) showed the least improvement for untrained items after their sessions. Scores on the additional neuropsychological tasks were unchanged.ConclusiontDCS stimulation has promise as a treatment for individuals with anomia arising from neurodegenerative disease, but its effectiveness can vary depending on the training given, the montage location used, as well as a participants’ diagnosis.
Highlights
There has been increasing interest in the past 20 year in the potential for electrical stimulation to positively benefit brain function, both in response to advances in the field, as well as the lack of pharmaceutical treatments for brain-related impairments (Rosa and Lisanby, 2012)
As done for trained and untrained items, we carried out repeated-measures Anovas for all participants on the other tasks administered during evaluation [Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Verbal Fluency, Digit Span]
TDCS produced an improvement in picture naming for a mixed group of Progressive Aphasia (PPA) participants that was superior to training and sham for both trained and untrained items
Summary
There has been increasing interest in the past 20 year in the potential for electrical stimulation to positively benefit brain function, both in response to advances in the field, as well as the lack of pharmaceutical treatments for brain-related impairments (Rosa and Lisanby, 2012) This excitement may have been sparked by two landmark papers which found direct current applied to the human scalp could produce excitability changes lasting beyond the time of stimulation tDCS Benefits in Neurodegenerative Anomia (Priori et al, 1998; Nitsche and Paulus, 2000, 2001). Electrical stimulation is often examined as the non-drug alternative (Guleyupoglu et al, 2013); representing a potential treatment for conditions where there are few if any effective therapies Modern techniques such as tDCS are nearly painless because they deliver a low level of current, making them highly acceptable. Electrical stimulation has become increasingly popular as a treatment plan for brain ailments that lack an obvious therapy
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