6533b81ffe1ef96bd1279039

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A case study of Primary Progressive Aphasia: improvement on verbs after rTMS treatment.

Filippo BrighinaTommaso PiccoliMario MaimoneChiara FinocchiaroBrigida FierroGiuseppe Giglia

subject

Malemedicine.medical_specialtymedicine.medical_treatmentPrefrontal CortexVerbbehavioral disciplines and activitiesSettore BIO/09 - FisiologiaPrimary progressive aphasiaPhysical medicine and rehabilitationElectromagnetic FieldsArts and Humanities (miscellaneous)MemoryAphasiarTMSNeural PathwaysmedicineMemory spanHumansLanguageMemory DisordersLanguage TestsLanguage productionSettore M-PSI/02 - Psicobiologia E Psicologia FisiologicaVerbal BehaviorLinguistic skillsMiddle Agedmedicine.diseaseMagnetic Resonance ImagingTranscranial Magnetic StimulationPrimary Progressive AphasiaTranscranial magnetic stimulationAphasia Primary ProgressiveTreatment Outcomenervous systemLeft prefrontal cortexSettore MED/26 - NeurologiaNeurology (clinical)medicine.symptomAtrophyPsychologyPPANeurosciencepsychological phenomena and processes

description

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.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2006-12-22Neurocase
10.1080/13554790601126203https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17182394