title: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of Broca's area in chronic aphasia: a controlled outcome study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the last decade transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been introduced in aphasia post-stroke recovery as a tool for modulating neuroplasticity. However, it is still unclear whether tDCS should be applied at rest (off-line) or combined with behavioral treatment strategies (on-line), therefore, this study investigates the effect of repeated sessions of off-line tDCS on language recovery in post-stroke chronic aphasic patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight post-stroke patients with different type and degree of chronic aphasia underwent two weeks of off-line anodal tDCS (2 mA intensity for 20 min a day) on Broca's area and two weeks of sham stimulation as a control condition. Language recovery was measured assessing object and action naming abilities with a computerized picture naming task.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant difference between anodal tDCS and sham stimulation, both for object and action naming tasks, was found. Descriptive analysis of single cases showed that after tDCS only one patient improved substantially on action naming task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With the exception of one patient, the overall results suggest that in chronic aphasic patients the off-line tDCS protocol applied in this study is not effective in improving noun and verb naming abilities.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Neuroscience, IRCCS Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo, Venice, Italy. chiara.volpato@ospedalesancamillo.net
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Volpato
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavinato
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piccione
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garzon
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meneghello
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Birbaumer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001037:Aphasia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D004599:Electric Stimulation Therapy; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016896:Treatment Outcome