Recovery of aphemia with pure word dumbness after treatment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: A case report

Abstract Aphemia with pure word dumbness is a relatively rare clinical syndrome caused by injury to the Broca area of the dominant hemisphere. Patients with this syndrome have significant difficulties in oral expression, whereas other language functions, such as written expression and comprehension, are normal. In this study, a patient without no evidence of structural brain lesions presented with aphemia with pure word dumbness after head trauma of the frontal lobe. Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations, functional abnormalities (regional homogeneity, degree centrality, and language network) were found in the patient without structural alterations. After four weeks of treatment with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and cognitive evaluation every week, we found that the patient's linguistic function (i.e., spontaneous speech, speech comprehension, rehearsal, naming, reading, writing and the aphasia quotient) recovered gradually. Therefore, rTMS may be an adjuvant therapy for the recovery of aphemia patients with pure word dumbness.