A case study of Primary Progressive Aphasia: improvement on verbs after rTMS treatment.
This case-report shows that high frequency repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (hf-rTMS), applied to the left prefrontal cortex, may improve the linguistic skills in Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The patient's performance was evaluated on a battery of language production and memory span tasks, before and after two hf-rTMS treatments and one SHAM treatment. We observed a significant and lasting improvement of the patient's performance on verb production following the application of hf-rTMS versus Baseline and SHAM conditions. This finding suggests that hf-rTMS may directly strengthen the neural connections within an area of metabolic dysfunction and encourages the use of rTMS as an alternative therapeutic tool for neurodegenerative forms of aphasia.
Finocchiaro
Chiara
C
Faculty of Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy. chiara.finocchiaro@form.unitn.it
Maimone
Mario
M
Brighina
Filippo
F
Piccoli
Tommaso
T
Giglia
Giuseppe
G
Fierro
Brigida
B
D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000528:radiation effects*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology / Q000528:radiation effects