Transcranial stimulation in semantic dementia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2019/10/0036/000398Keywords:
Semantic variant, primary progressive aphasia, repetitive tDCSAbstract
Semantic variant of primary progressive aphasia (sv-PPA) is the most frequent form of PPA with no current treatment. Non-invasive brain stimulation by transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is emerging as a therapeutic alternative. We present preliminary results from a double-blind sham-controlled study of 14 sv-PPA patients who received daily tDCS sessions for 10 consecutive days. Patients were randomized to 3 conditions: Left Anodal (excitatory), Right Cathodal (inhibitory), and Sham (Placebo). Participants underwent a series of language tasks prior to and following the sessions. Prior to and 2 weeks following the tDCS regime, patients underwent 18[F]-FDG-PET recordings. We didn’t find significant improvements in semantic access for any group. The Left Anodal group showed medium effect sizes in visual semantic associations. Excellent tolerance and a high level of subjective satisfaction were found for all groups. The protocol is ongoing.
References
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Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
