Effects of tDCS and intensive behavioral therapy in a longevous individual with low education and subacute aphasia.
Natália Callegaro Costa, Rafaela Rossini Peters, Pamela Lemes Rocha and 1 others
PMID 41637261WHAT IT FOUND
An 86-year-old man with subacute aphasia showed improved naming and reduced errors after two weeks of intensive word-finding therapy combined with tDCS.
Gains remained 30 days later. As a single case, this does not prove the treatment works for others.
Key findings
01The participant's total naming accuracy on the TENOM test improved from 45 out of 90 correct before treatment to 65 out of 90 immediately after and 30 days later.
02Qualitative assessment showed a decrease in formal and semantic paraphasias and regularization errors as treatment progressed, though anomia persisted.
03Generalization to untrained words was observed, with the patient correctly naming 10 out of 22 unpracticed terms at the final assessment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study reports on a single individual, so the results cannot be generalized to the broader population of people with aphasia. There was no control group or sham stimulation, making it impossible to determine if the improvements were due to tDCS, the intensive behavioral therapy, or natural recovery. The therapist administering the intervention was not blinded to the assessment results, which introduces potential bias in treatment delivery and evaluation. The follow-up period was only 30 days, so the long-term persistence of gains is unknown.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial support or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that tDCS caused the improvement. The patient received intensive behavioral therapy simultaneously, and without a control group or sham stimulation, the specific contribution of tDCS cannot be separated from the effects of the speech therapy itself.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →