Non-invasive brain stimulation in cognitive deficits after stroke: The case of hemispatial neglect

Speaker: Dr Dario Cazzoli - ARTORG Center, University of Bern, Switzerland

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Left-sided hemispatial neglect is a common and disabling syndrome after right-hemispheric stroke. Influential models of neglect conceive this syndrome as the result of impaired dynamics in inter-hemispheric inhibition. Recent studies demonstrated that non-invasive brain stimulation techniques are able to positively influence these dynamics, and thus to lead to an amelioration of neglect symptoms. The talk will provide an overview on recent advances in the application of non-invasive brain stimulation (in particular, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, rTMS) as a rehabilitative approach for hemispatial neglect, and on open issues in this field, such as inter-individual variability of the effects, interactions with non-spatial attentional factors, and possible combinations with other approaches.