Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Semantic Speech–Gesture Matching in Patients With Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder

BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) have severe deficits in speech and gesture processing that contribute considerably to the burden of this disorder. Brain imaging shows left inferior frontal gyrus involvement for impaired processing of co-verbal gestures in patients with schizophrenia. Recently, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the left frontal lobe has been shown to modulate processing of co-verbal gestures in healthy subjects. Although tDCS has been used to reduce symptoms of patients with SSD, the effects of tDCS on gesture processing deficits remain hitherto unexplored. OBJECTIVE: Here we tested the hypothesis that inhibitory cathodal tDCS of the left frontal lobe decreases pathological dysfunction and improves semantic processing of co-verbal gestures in patients with SSD. METHODS: We measured ratings and reaction times in a speech–gesture semantic relatedness assessment task during application of frontal, frontoparietal, parietal, and sham tDCS to 20 patients with SSD and 29 healthy controls. RESULTS: We found a specific effect of tDCS on speech–gesture relatedness ratings of patients. Frontal compared to parietal and sham stimulation significantly improved the differentiation between related and unrelated gestures. Placement of the second electrode (right frontal vs parietal) did not affect the effect of left frontal stimulation, which reduced the preexisting difference between patients and healthy controls. CONCLUSION: Here we show that left frontal tDCS can improve semantic co-verbal gesture processing in patients with SSD. tDCS could be a viable tool to normalize processing in the left frontal lobe and facilitate direct social communicative functioning in patients with SSD.