Brain stimulation combined with speech therapy for stroke-related speech loss

This trial is testing whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)—a noninvasive technique that gently stimulates the brain using small electrical currents—can help improve speech and language therapy results for people with aphasia caused by stroke. Half of the participants will receive real brain stimulation paired with speech therapy, and half will receive sham (fake) stimulation paired with the same speech therapy. The study wants to see if adding this brain stimulation helps people regain their ability to name things and communicate better than speech therapy alone.

Many people with aphasia recover slowly from speech therapy, and the improvements can be small. Researchers believe that pairing speech therapy with brain stimulation might help the brain rewire and recover language skills more effectively, potentially giving patients better outcomes and a higher quality of life.