A case study of primary progressive aphasia: Improvement on verbs after rTMS treatment
- Authors: Finocchiaro C; Maimone M; Brighina F; Piccoli T; Giglia G; Fierro B
- Publication year: 2006
- Type: Articolo in rivista (Articolo in rivista)
- OA Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10447/35631
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.