Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Electrical Stimulation on the Recovery of Ideomotor Apraxia of the Upper Limbs

Clinica di Riabilitazione Toscana Spa

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Apraxia, Ideomotor

Treatments: Device: Behavioural; Device: transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS); Device: Sham stimulation (sham-tDCS)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05259176

tDCS-AIM

Details and patient eligibility

About

Limbs apraxia is a motor disorder whose characteristic is the inability or difficulty to perform intentional movements of the limbs (gestures), most frequently involving the upper limbs. Recent literature indicated promising effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the recovery of limbs apraxia, showing that, in stroke patients, excitatory anodal tDCS over left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) may improve limb apraxia. Despite this encouraging evidence, the need for larger well powered and sham-controlled clinical trials has also been identified. For these reasons, the objective of this study is to investigate the effects of tDCS application on the left posterior parietal cortex, associated with the treatment for apraxia made by Smania et al. in 2000, on the recovery of the upper limbs ideomotor apraxia in patients with left brain lesion of vascular origin.

Enrollment: 20 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Subjects of both gender, with ischaemic stroke;
• Left hemispheric injury documented by neuroimaging examination;
• Cerebrovascular disease onset within the first 30 days;
• Presence of ideomotor apraxia as documented by a score < 53 in the De Renzi's test;
• Intact semantic skills as documented by normal performance on the Auditory or Visual Word Comprehension subtest of the Neuropsychological Examination for Aphasia (E. N. P. A.);
• Full comprehension skills as documented by normal performance in the sub-test of oral or orthographic comprehension (Auditory or Visual Words Comprehension) of the Neuropsychological Examination for Aphasia (E. N. P. A.);
• Age between 20 and 80 years;
• Any schooling;
• Patient's informed consent signature.

Exclusion criteria

• Comprehension and/or semantics deficit as documented by E. N. P. A.;
• Pre-existing psychiatric and/or neurological pathology;
• Failure to sign the patient's and/or caregiver's informed consent.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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20 participants in 2 patient groups

transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

Experimental group

Description:

transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on the left posterior parietal cortex and rehabilitative treatment with Smania's training

Treatment:

Device: transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

Device: Behavioural

Placebo stimulation (sham-tDCS)

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Placebo stimulation and rehabilitative treatment with Smania's training

Treatment:

Device: Sham stimulation (sham-tDCS)

Device: Behavioural