DUAL-tDCS Treatment over the Temporo-Parietal Cortex Enhances Writing Skills: First Evidence from Chronic Post-Stroke Aphasia

Abstract

The learning of writing skills involves the re-engagement of previously established independent procedures. Indeed, the writing deficit an adult may acquire after left hemispheric brain injury is caused by either an impairment to the lexical route, which processes words as a whole, to the sublexical procedure based on phoneme-to-grapheme conversion rules, or to both procedures. To date, several approaches have been proposed for writing disorders, among which, interventions aimed at restoring the sub-lexical procedure were successful in cases of severe agraphia. In a randomized double-blind crossover design, fourteen chronic Italian post-stroke aphasics underwent dual transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) (20 min, 2 mA) with anodal and cathodal current simultaneously placed over the left and right temporo-parietal cortex, respectively. Two different conditions were considered: (1) real, and (2) sham, while performing a writing task. Each experimental condition was performed for ten workdays over two weeks. After real stimulation, a greater amelioration in writing with respect to the sham was found. Relevantly, these effects generalized to different language tasks not directly treated. This evidence suggests, for the first time, that dual tDCS associated with training is efficacious for severe agraphia. Our results confirm the critical role of the temporo-parietal cortex in writing skills.