title: A case study of Primary Progressive Aphasia: improvement on verbs after rTMS treatment.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Italy. chiara.finocchiaro@form.unitn.it
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Finocchiaro
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maimone
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brighina
authors.forename: Tommaso
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Piccoli
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giglia
authors.forename: Brigida
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fierro
mesh_terms: 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