Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol 3036, Cyprus.
Behav Neurol. 2021 Nov 25;2021:9164543. doi: 10.1155/2021/9164543. eCollection 2021.
Traditionally, people with aphasia (PWA) are treated with impairment-based language therapy to improve receptive and expressive language skills. In addition to language deficits, PWA are often affected by some level of working memory (WM) impairments. Both language and working memory impairments combined have a negative impact on PWA's quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the application of intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) combined with computerized WM training will result in near-ransfer effects (i.e., trained WM) and far-transfer effects (i.e., untrained language tasks) and have a positive effect on the quality of life of PWA.
The participant was a 63-year-old Greek-Cypriot male who presented with mild receptive aphasia and short-term memory difficulties. Treatment was carried out using a multiple baseline (MB) design composed of a pretherapy or baseline testing phase, a therapy phase, and a posttherapy/follow-up phase. The treatment program involved iTBS application to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), an area responsible for WM, for 10 consecutive sessions. The participant received a 3-minute iTBS application followed by 30-minute computer-assisted WM training. Outcome measures included a WM screening test, a standardized aphasia test, a nonverbal intelligence test, story-telling speech samples, a procedural discourse task, and a questionnaire addressing quality of life. These measures were performed three times before the treatment, immediately upon completion of the treatment, and once during follow-up testing at 3 months posttreatment.
We found a beneficial effect of iTBS and WM training on naming, reading, WM, reasoning, narrative, communication efficiency, and quality of life (QoL). Noninvasive brain stimulation combined with computerized WM training may be used in aphasia rehabilitation to improve WM and generalize to language improvement.
传统上，失语症患者（PWA）接受基于损伤的语言治疗以改善接受性和表达性语言技能。除了语言缺陷外，PWA 通常还受到一定程度的工作记忆（WM）损伤的影响。语言和工作记忆损伤的综合影响对 PWA 的生活质量产生负面影响。本研究旨在调查间歇性经颅磁刺激（iTBS）与计算机 WM 训练相结合是否会产生近转移效应（即训练 WM）和远转移效应（即未训练语言任务），并对 PWA 的生活质量产生积极影响。
该参与者是一位 63 岁的希腊塞浦路斯人男性，表现出轻度接受性失语症和短期记忆困难。治疗采用多基线（MB）设计进行，包括治疗前或基线测试阶段、治疗阶段和治疗后/随访阶段。治疗方案包括 10 个连续疗程的左背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）iTBS 应用，该区域负责 WM。参与者接受 3 分钟的 iTBS 应用，随后进行 30 分钟的计算机辅助 WM 训练。评估指标包括 WM 筛查测试、标准化失语症测试、非语言智力测试、故事讲述言语样本、程序性话语任务和生活质量问卷。这些措施在治疗前进行了三次，治疗结束后立即进行了一次，治疗后 3 个月的随访测试中进行了一次。
我们发现 iTBS 和 WM 训练对命名、阅读、WM、推理、叙事、沟通效率和生活质量（QoL）有有益的影响。非侵入性脑刺激与计算机 WM 训练相结合可用于失语症康复，以改善 WM 并推广到语言改善。
