Long-term Effect of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Transcranial Electrical Stimulation in Primary Progressive Aphasia: Randomized, Double-blind Clinical Trial (RECONNECT-PLUS)
The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the effect of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques in the progression of primary progressive aphasia for 6 months. We will compare three modalities of brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS, TMS+tDCS) against sham stimulation. All patients will receive also language therapy.
• Diagnosis of PPA according to the current consensus criteria proposed by Gorno-Tempini et al., 2011), based on the presence of progressive language impairment as the most prominent and primary cause of functional decline and the exclusion of other medical, psychiatric, or non-neurodegenerative causes,a s well as early prominent memory, visuoperceptual or behavioral disturbances;
• Diagnosis of one of the three variants of PPA (non-fluent, semantic, or logopenic) according to the consensus criteria (Gorno-Tempini et al., 2011), based on the language profile and supported by neuroimaging (FDG-PET or MRI).
• Clinical Dementia Rating scale equal or less than 1;
• The language impairment is the main neurological deficit for the patient.