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Semin Speech Lang 2004; 25(2): 181-191
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-825654
Copyright © 2004 by Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc., 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Complementary Treatment for Aphasia

Paula I. Martin1 , Margaret A. Naeser1 , Hugo Theoret2 , 4 , Jose Maria Tormos2 , 5 , Marjorie Nicholas1 , Jacquie Kurland1 , 3 , Felipe Fregni2 , Heidi Seekins1 , Karl Doron1 , Alvaro Pascual-Leone2 , 5
  • 1Boston University School of Medicine and VA Boston Healthcare System, Neuroimaging/Aphasia Research, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation/Aphasia Research and Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 2Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Behavioral Neurology Unit, Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 3Department of Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences and Neurosciences Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
  • 4Départment de Psychologie and Hôpital Ste-Justine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
  • 5Institut Guttmann de Neurorehabilitación, Instituto Universitario, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Publication Date:
07 May 2004 (online)

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Functional brain imaging with nonfluent aphasia patients has shown increased cortical activation (perhaps “overactivation”) in right (R) hemisphere language homologues. These areas of overactivation may represent a maladaptive strategy that interferes with, rather than promotes, aphasia recovery. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a painless, noninvasive procedure that utilizes magnetic fields to create electric currents in discrete brain areas affecting about a 1-cm square area of cortex. Slow frequency, 1 Hz rTMS reduces cortical excitability. When rTMS is applied to an appropriate cortical region, it may suppress the possible overactivation and thus modulate a distributed neural network for language. We provide information on rTMS and report preliminary results following rTMS application to R Broca's area (posterior, R pars triangularis) in four stroke patients with nonfluent aphasia (5-11 years after left hemisphere stroke). Following 10 rTMS treatments, significant improvement in naming pictures was observed. This form of rTMS may provide a novel, complementary treatment for aphasia.

KEYWORDS

Aphasia treatment - naming - transcranial magnetic stimulation

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Paula Martin

VA Boston Healthcare System (12-A)

150 So. Huntington Ave., Boston, MA, 02130

Email: paulak@bu.edu