title: Improved picture naming in aphasia patients treated with cathodal tDCS to inhibit the right Broca's homologue area.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous reports have suggested that noninvasive cortical stimulation could influence speech production in patients with chronic stroke. Here, we evaluated the hypothesis that cathodal transcranial DC stimulation (ctDCS), a technique that decreases excitability of stimulated cortical sites, applied over a healthy right Broca's homologue area could improve picture naming in patients with post-stroke aphasia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten right-handed patients with post-stroke aphasia were enrolled in this double blind, counterbalanced sham-controlled, crossover study. Each patient received an intervention of ctDCS (2 mA for 20 min) and of sham tDCS (2 mA for 1 min) daily for 5 consecutive days in a randomized crossover manner with a minimum interval of one week between interventions, over a healthy right Broca's homologue area using a left supraorbital anode and simultaneous daily sessions of conventional word-retrieval training. The primary endpoint measure of this study was a standardized, validated Korean version of the Boston Naming Test, which is a measure of picture naming skills.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ctDCS was not found to have any adverse effects. Furthermore, significantly improved picture naming (p = 0.02) was observed at 1 hour following the last (5th) ctDCS treatment session, but no changes were observed after sham tDCS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that cathodal tDCS over the right healthy Broca's homologue area with a left supraorbital anodal location can improve picture naming task performance in post-stroke aphasia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, South Korea; Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Seoul Bukbu Geriatric Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Eun Kyoung
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Yu Kyeong
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hae Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Leonardo G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Nam-Jong
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Paik
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001037:Aphasia / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009275:Names; D009433:Neural Inhibition / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*