Functional Reorganization of Right Prefrontal Cortex Underlies Sustained Naming Improvements in Chronic Aphasia via Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:While noninvasive brain stimulation techniques show promise for language recovery after stroke, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We applied inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to regions of interest in the right inferior frontal gyrus of patients with chronic poststroke aphasia and examined changes in picture naming performance and cortical activation. METHODS:Nine patients received 10 days of 1-Hz rTMS (Monday through Friday for 2 weeks). We assessed naming performance before and immediately after stimulation on the first and last days of rTMS therapy, and then again at 2 and 6 months post-rTMS. A subset of six of these patients underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging pre-rTMS (baseline) and at 2 and 6 months post-rTMS.

SUBMITTER: Harvey DY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5797702 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature