U of C brain stimulation study reveals promising results to improve speech for stroke patients

Researchers at the University of Calgary are using a brain stimulation treatment in an effort to improve speech disorders caused by a stroke.

Researchers at the University of Calgary are using a non-invasive brain stimulation treatment as part of a promising study to improve speech for patients who have suffered from a stroke.

Lucy Mulloor is one of those patients diagnosed with aphasia, a communication disorder affecting her ability to speak, write and understand both spoken and written language.

She previously was fluent in four languages, but the 45-year-old woke up one morning without the ability to use her voice or even move parts of her body

“I couldn’t speak at all in the beginning. It was very scary,” she said.

Mulloor would soon learn she had a massive stroke in the night and would spend the next five months in the hospital.

“I had to relearn everything. Hearing I’d had a stroke was a complete shock,” she said. “At that time, I was hiking and going to yoga and Zumba regularly. My blood pressure and blood sugar levels were in the healthy range. “

Research study

In the hopes of improving her condition, she signed up for a research study led by Dr. Sean Dukelow, MD, PhD, at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

Dukelow was investigating whether transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) combined with intensive speech therapy could improve recovery from poststroke aphasia.

“The majority of us have language on the left side of our brain and what happens after a stroke to the left side of the brain is that language, in many cases, starts to shift over the right side, it’s not well equipped to handle language, and so people have trouble speaking or communicating as a result,” Dukelow said.

“With this treatment, what we’re effectively doing is pushing language back into the left hemisphere, the left side of the brain, where it belongs. And people seem to do better as a result of that.”

TMS involves the use of an electromagnet to apply brief magnetic pulses to the head, which can alter brain activity and potentially alleviate symptoms including speech disorders.

Recruited

Mulloor, alongside 43 other people who had suffered a stroke a minimum of six months prior were recruited for the study in which participants were separated into two groups.

Both groups received two weeks of intensive speech therapy, however only one group received TMS.

Trevor Low, MD/PhD student is the first author of the study and notes that all participants showed some level of speech improvement.

“We also saw speech improvements in the group that did not receive the stimulation,” he said.

“In that group, the gain was modest but evident, in the rTMS group the gains were significant. It’s really incredible to see that the brain is still capable of rewiring itself long after stroke.”

Mulloor, who received TMS, was three-years post stroke when she signed up for the study. She says her experience has been life changing.

“I can speak now -- gradually -- and this helped a lot,” she said. “I have a car and I’m driving and I’m doing everything I could do pre-stroke. The aphasia is still there but beginning to go away.”

Findings from this study are published in Neurology.

The team is planning to publish additional findings from the study. Researchers conducted extensive brain imaging of the participants and will be sharing results of the changes they saw in brain circuitry.