J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2007 Feb;31(1):70-77.

The Therapeutic Effect of Inhibitory Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Subcortical Aphasia

• Lee JH
• Yoo WK
• Jung KI
• Kim DH
• Park DS
• Im HJ

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether suppression of right inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's homologue) by 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can improve speech recovery. METHOD: We applied low frequency rTMS on right Broca's homologue twice a week for 6 weeks in eight subcortical aphasia patients who were 3 months to 3 years poststroke onset. They were tested with Korean Version-Western Aphasia Battery before and after procedure. Also, they were tested with Parallel Short Forms for the Korean-BostonNaming Test and Animal Naming Test serially for outcome measure. rTMS was performed with intensity of 80% of motor threshold for 10 min (600 pulses) at 1 Hz frequency.
RESULTS
Significant improvement was observed in picture naming at post-rTMS only in nonfluent aphasia patients but not in fluent aphasia patients.
CONCLUSION
rTMS may provide a novel treatment for aphasia by possibly modulating the distributed, bi-hemispheric language network.

Keyword

rTMS; Subcortical aphasia; Inferior frontal lobe; Bi-hemispheric language network

MeSH Terms

Animals
Aphasia*
Aphasia, Broca
Aphasia, Wernicke
Humans
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation*