Theta burst stimulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates pathological language switching: A case report

NEUROSCIENCE LETTERS

卷:487

Article

Nardone, Raffaele^1,2  De Blasi, Pierpaolo³  Bergmann, Juergen⁴  Caleri, Francesca¹  Tezzon, Frediano¹  Ladurner, Gunther⁴  Golaszewski, Stefan^2,4  Trink, Eugen² 

[1] Franz Tappeiner Hosp, Dept Neurol, Meran O, Italy

[2] Paracelsus Med Univ, Christian Doppler Clin, Dept Neurol, Salzburg, Austria

[3] Univ Turin, Coll Carlo Alberto, Dept Stat & Appl Math, Turin, Italy

[4] Inst Neurosci, Christian Doppler Clin, Salzburg, Austria

关键词: Transcranial magnetic stimulation;    Theta burst stimulation;    Language switching;    Bilingualism;    Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neulet.2010.10.060

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Although different lesion and neuroimaging studies had highlighted the importance of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in language switching, the nature of this higher cortical disorder of communication and its neural correlates have not been clearly established. To further investigate the functional involvement of the DLPFC, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) given as theta burst stimulation (TBS) in a bilingual patient showing pathologic language switching after an ischemic stroke involving the left frontal lobe. Inhibitory and excitatory TBS were applied to the left DLPFC, to the right DLPFC, or to an occipital cortical control site. A short-lasting interruption of the pathological language switching occurred after excitatory left DLPFC stimulation, while inhibitory left DLPFC TBS transiently increased the number of utterances produced in the unwanted second language. Effects were non-significant after right DLPFC and occipital TBS. Our findings suggest that left DLPFC is actively involved in language switching. TMS techniques may help in understanding the neural bases of bilingualism. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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