Syracuse Sun

In recent findings published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, researchers from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders have conducted a pilot study examining the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on post-stroke patients, particularly focusing on symptoms of attention and fatigue.

The study observed 10 stroke survivors, all of whom were diagnosed with post-stroke aphasia. These participants, with an average age of 62.8, underwent two sessions that were spaced at least three days apart. These sessions commenced with an attention test where brain activity and pupil size were measured. The attention training consisted of either genuine tDCS or a placebo.

Hannah Rembrandt, a first co-author and Ph.D. student in the University’s Aphasia Lab, emphasized the importance of improving attention for stroke survivors, stating, “If you can find a way to improve their attention, it can help other areas of their life.”

While the study showed that real tDCS led to larger pupil dilation—a sign of activation of the brain’s locus coeruleus-norepinephrine pathway linked to attention—the treatment did not translate into measurable improvements in attention tests. Rembrandt noted, “We hypothesize that attention did not improve because there were too few sessions of the treatment.”

Interestingly, the study found that participants felt less fatigued when they received real stimulation as opposed to a placebo. Rembrandt commented on this, saying, “If you do a lot of mental activity, we’d expect fatigue to increase. That tDCS mediated an increase shows a lot of promise to help combat fatigue.”

Rembrandt expressed optimism about the potential of tDCS in post-stroke cognitive rehabilitation but highlighted the need for more research: “This is a step forward into understanding exactly how this treatment has been able to help people, and we are looking forward to continuing this work and learning more.”