Original ArticleProlonged visual memory enhancement after direct current stimulation in Alzheimer's disease
Section snippets
Subjects
We selected 15 patients with AD diagnosed according to the National Institute of Neurology and Communication Disorder and Stroke-The Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association Criteria (NINCDS-ADRDA)8 and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual–IV (DSM-IV).9 According to the DSM-IV, to be diagnosed with AD, subjects need to fulfill the following: memory impairment; one or more of the following cognitive disturbances (aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, impaired executive functioning); cognitive
Results
All 15 patients tolerated tDCS therapy well and none of them reported adverse effects. When we checked comparability by analyzing the patients’ baseline performance on MMSE, VAT, and ADAS-Cog scales we found no significant differences between patients for any of the cognitive measures tested (P > 0.05) (Table 2). Nor were differences found in baseline VRT performance scores for each condition (Figure 2).
Repeated measures ANOVA detected no effects of the dependent variables MMSE, Adas-Cog, and
Discussion
The main findings in this study are that visual recognition memory improved after patients with AD received anodal tDCS over the temporal cortex daily for 5 days and the improvement persisted for 4 weeks after neurostimulation therapy ended. We found no significant changes in Adas-Cog, MMSE, or a VAT tested after tDCS. This study therefore extends our previous findings showing significant improvement in recognition memory after patients with AD undergo a single session of temporal tDCS. We also
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The authors (P.S.B., D.M., O.M., L.T., E.S., F.F.) report no financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
F.M., R.F., M.V., and A.P. are stake holders in Newronika s.r.l., a spin-off company of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico of Milan and of the Università degli Studi di Milano.