The effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the left Inferior Frontal Gyrus in patients with Apraxia of Speech (AOS) on consonant and vowel duration and speech fluency. tDCS coupled with speech intervention results in significantly shorter vowels and consonants than sham (Themistocleous, Webster, & Tsapkini, 2021).
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Themistocleous Charalambos, Webster Kimberly, Tsapkini, Kyrana (2021). Effects of tDCS
on Sound Duration in Patients with Apraxia of Speech in Primary Progressive Aphasia. Brain Sciences,
11(3):335-553.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/3/335. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was found to improve oral and written naming in post-stroke and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), speech fluency in stuttering, a developmental speech-motor disorder, and apraxia of speech (AOS) symptoms in post-stroke aphasia. This paper addressed the question of whether tDCS over the left IFG coupled with speech therapy improves sound duration in patients with apraxia of speech (AOS) symptoms in non-fluent PPA (nfvPPA/AOS) more than sham. Segmental duration was significantly shorter after tDCS compared to sham and tDCS gains generalized to untrained words. The effects of tDCS sustained over two months post-treatment in trained and untrained sounds. Taken together, these results demonstrate that tDCS over the left IFG may facilitate speech production by reducing segmental duration. The results provide preliminary evidence that tDCS may maximize efficacy of speech therapy in patients with nfvPPA/AOS.
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