P009 tDCS combined with optokinetic drift reduces egocentric neglect in severely impaired post-acute patients

Abstract

Introduction and objective Visuospatial neglect is a disabling syndrome resulting in impaired activities of daily living and in longer durations of inpatient rehabilitation. Short-term and effective interventions to remediate neglect are still needed. The combination of tDCS with an optokinetic task might qualify as a treatment method. Patients and methods Thirty-two post-acute patients were included with left ( n = 20) or right-sided neglect and allotted to an intervention and a control group (both n = 16). The intervention group received eight sessions of 1.5–2.0 mA parietal tDCS during the performance of an optokinetic task distributed over two weeks. Additionally, they received standard therapy for five hours per day. The control group received only the standard therapy. Patients were examined twice before (T1–T2) and twice after one week of treatment (T3–T4). Results Compared to the control group and controlling for spontaneous remission, the intervention group improved on spontaneous body orientation and the Clock Drawing test. Intragroup comparisons showed broad improvements on egocentric and not on allocentric symptoms only for the intervention group. Conclusions A short additional application of tDCS during an optokinetic task leads to improvements of severe neglect compared to a standard neurological early rehabilitation treatment. Improvements seem to concern primarily egocentric rather than allocentric neglect.