title: Transcranial direct current stimulation for the treatment of primary progressive aphasia: An open-label pilot study.
abstract: Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative condition characterized by gradual deterioration of language function. We investigated whether two weeks of daily transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) treatment would improve language abilities in six people with a non-fluent form of PPA. tDCS was applied in an unblinded trial at an intensity of 1.5mA for 20min/day over 10days. At the time of stimulation, patients were engaged in narrating one of several children's wordless picture stories. A battery of neuropsychological assessments was administered four times: at baseline, immediately following the 2-week stimulation period, and then 6-weeks and 12-weeks following the end of stimulation. We observed improvement in linguistic performance in the domains of speech production and grammatical comprehension. Our encouraging results indicate that larger, sham-controlled studies of tDCS as a potential intervention for PPA are warranted.
authors: Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
authors: Felix
authors: F
authors: Gervits
authors: Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
authors: Sharon
authors: S
authors: Ash
authors: Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
authors: H Branch
authors: HB
authors: Coslett
authors: Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
authors: Katya
authors: K
authors: Rascovsky
authors: Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
authors: Murray
authors: M
authors: Grossman
authors: Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States. Electronic address: roy.hamilton@uphs.upenn.edu.
authors: Roy
authors: R
authors: Hamilton
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018888:Aphasia, Primary Progressive / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
keywords: Frontotemporal lobar degeneration; Logopenic PPA; Neurodegenerative disease; Primary progressive aphasia; Progressive nonfluent aphasia; tDCS