Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Brain Organization and Naming in Aphasic Patients.

Functional connectivity (FC) represents a means of analyzing functional interactions in the brain network by assessing the statistical dependence of neural activity between brain areas. The brain maintains a high level of interactions between brain areas even in the resting state, when it is not explicitly involved in a specific task. Resting-state interactions occur mainly in the so-called alpha frequency band (8-13 Hz) . Moreover, these resting-state interactions are crucial for correct task performance and learning. Indeed, healthy subjects with high resting-state alpha-band FC levels are better able to perform tasks and learn. For example, subjects with high levels of FC between Broca's area and the rest of the brain perform better on language production tasks and show greater training gains when learning new words. In addition, patients with brain damage due to stroke show a reduction in resting-state alpha-band FC, which correlates with the severity of neurological deficits. In particular, a loss of FC of structurally preserved inferior frontal areas was associated with more severe aphasia. Conversely, high-levels of FC between the inferior frontal brain areas and the rest of the brain during the first weeks after stroke was associated with better recovery from aphasia, probably reflecting a reorganization of neural connections as a neural mechanism involved in plasticity. Resting-state FC is therefore an interesting neural target for therapy, which could help improve recovery from aphasia.

In a previous study on healthy subjects, the investigators have indeed observed that HD-tDCS applied to Broca's area improves the ability for new-verb learning, i.e., the correct naming of action pictures. This improvement in learning correlated with greater increase in FC between Broca's and Wernicke's area.

The investigators now carry out a study on chronic aphasic patients involving HD-tDCS of the Broca region (left inferior frontal gyrus) combined with a verb learning task.

Inclusion criteria

• Ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke
• Presence of aphasia with difficulty finding words and/or naming objects/pictures
• ≥12 months post-stroke
• ≥ 18 years of age
• French-speaking
• Able to participate in 30-60 min therapeutic sessions (good concentration and understanding of the task and ability to follow instructions

Exclusion criteria

• Patients unable to understand the given information on the study and its objectives, or instructions for tasks performed.
• Impaired alertness or delirium
• Severe co-morbidity affecting speech
• Contraindication to tDCS: pregnant women, patients with active implants such as pacemakers or cochlear implants, patients with one or more seizures, metal objects in the brain
• Occurrence of a new stroke during the study protocol.