TY - JOUR
T1 - Differential effects from cognitive rehabilitation and high-definition tDCS in posterior cortical atrophy
T2 - A single-case experimental design
AU - Dugas, Christine Sofka
AU - Keltner-Dorman, Elena
AU - Hart, John
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the participant and her spouse for their dedicated participation throughout the study. The authors would also like to thank the staff at the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Memory for their invaluable support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by visual-perceptual deficits, which impact daily life. Recent research has focused on non-pharmacological techniques to ameliorate these deficits, with the most common being cognitive rehabilitation. The present study investigates the differential effects of high definition-transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) and cognitive rehabilitation in a single-case experimental design with two separate experimental phases in a patient with PCA. Experimental Phase 1 consisted of 10 sessions of HD-tDCS targeting the pre-SMA/dACC and Phase 2 consisted of 10 sessions of cognitive rehabilitation. Normed and standardized scores from figure copy and recall tests served as the primary outcome measures for visuospatial processing. The participant showed no immediate or long-term changes in visuospatial measures following HD-tDCS intervention. However, cognitive rehabilitation showed immediate improvement in visuospatial memory (figure recall) and clinically significant improvement in visuospatial construction (figure copy). Visuospatial construction gains remained in the low average range in the 10-week follow-up while visuospatial memory returned to baseline. Results indicated differential effects between HD-tDCS and cognitive rehabilitation with cognitive rehabilitation showing clinically significant improvement in primary outcome measures with sustained improvement in the long-term follow-up measure. Additional research is warranted to confirm these effects.
AB - Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by visual-perceptual deficits, which impact daily life. Recent research has focused on non-pharmacological techniques to ameliorate these deficits, with the most common being cognitive rehabilitation. The present study investigates the differential effects of high definition-transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) and cognitive rehabilitation in a single-case experimental design with two separate experimental phases in a patient with PCA. Experimental Phase 1 consisted of 10 sessions of HD-tDCS targeting the pre-SMA/dACC and Phase 2 consisted of 10 sessions of cognitive rehabilitation. Normed and standardized scores from figure copy and recall tests served as the primary outcome measures for visuospatial processing. The participant showed no immediate or long-term changes in visuospatial measures following HD-tDCS intervention. However, cognitive rehabilitation showed immediate improvement in visuospatial memory (figure recall) and clinically significant improvement in visuospatial construction (figure copy). Visuospatial construction gains remained in the low average range in the 10-week follow-up while visuospatial memory returned to baseline. Results indicated differential effects between HD-tDCS and cognitive rehabilitation with cognitive rehabilitation showing clinically significant improvement in primary outcome measures with sustained improvement in the long-term follow-up measure. Additional research is warranted to confirm these effects.
KW - Brain stimulation
KW - Cognitive rehabilitation
KW - Posterior cortical atrophy
KW - Visuospatial deficits
KW - tDCS
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U2 - 10.1080/09602011.2021.1927761
DO - 10.1080/09602011.2021.1927761
M3 - Article
C2 - 34037503
AN - SCOPUS:85106518568
SN - 0960-2011
VL - 32
SP - 1620
EP - 1642
JO - Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
JF - Neuropsychological Rehabilitation
IS - 7
ER -