Neuronavigated theta burst stimulation for chronic aphasia: two exploratory case studies.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Neurology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Chronic aphasia following stroke significantly impacts communication and quality of life.
• Current treatments for chronic aphasia have limitations, necessitating novel therapeutic approaches.
• Neuronavigated continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique.

Observation:

• Two individuals with chronic aphasia post-stroke received 10-day cTBS over the right pars triangularis.
• Language and quality of life measures were assessed pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 3-month follow-up.
• The treatment was well-tolerated with no reported side effects.

Findings:

• One participant demonstrated improvements in language comprehension and expressive skills, with trends in discourse and sentence productivity, and grammatical accuracy.
• The second participant showed sustained improvement in comprehension but a decline in expressive language.
• Quality of life changes varied between participants, with mixed results across domains.

Implications:

• cTBS over the right pars triangularis shows potential as a therapeutic tool for improving language function in chronic aphasia.
• Further research is warranted to explore the efficacy and long-term benefits of this non-invasive stimulation protocol.
• This approach may offer a novel, non-invasive option for stroke rehabilitation.