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Updated: Mar 25, 2026
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition
Published on: July 13, 2019
Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the auditory cortex improved hearing impairment in a patient with
Takayuki Mori1, Naoyuki Takeuchi2, Sakiko Suzuki3
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
Abstract:
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can alter cortical excitability, and has been effective in treating some neurological disorders. This case report describes the use of tDCS in a 13-year-old female who developed bilateral hearing impairment after brainstem encephalitis when she was 6 years old. Her auditory function was more impaired in her right ear than her left. Anodal stimulation (1 mA) was applied for 10 min to the left auditory cortex once per day for 4 consecutive days to improve her right ear speech discrimination score. Sustained and significant improvement in maximum speech discrimination was observed after the four tDCS treatments. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of improvement in speech discrimination after anodal stimulation of the auditory cortex. These results encourage further studies investigating the beneficial effects of tDCS in patients with hearing impairments.
