Effects of dual transcranial direct current stimulation on post-stroke unilateral visuospatial neglect

Abstract Based on the interhemispheric inhibition model of unilateral visuospatial neglect (USN) after stroke, the effects of dual-mode transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the parietal cortices were assessed in a double-blind random-order cross-over experiment. Ten chronic right hemispheric stroke patients (4 men; mean age: 62.6 years) with USN were recruited. All participants underwent three randomly arranged tDCS sessions: (1) dual-mode, anodal tDCS over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and cathodal tDCS over the left PPC; (2) single-mode, anodal tDCS over the right PPC; and (3) sham mode. Each session lasted 20 min. Before and immediately after the stimulation, a line bisection test and star cancelation test were carried out. In the line bisection test, significant improvements were observed after both the dual- and the single-mode tDCS ( p p