tDCS for swallowing improvement and cortical activity in hemispheric stroke (RCT)

• A randomized, controlled trial in Nature evaluated the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on swallowing improvement and cortical activity in hemispheric stroke patients.¹
• The RCT supports neuromodulation evidence and rehabilitation neuroprosthetics.^{1 1}

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

• The trial was published in Scientific Reports (Nature portfolio) in 2025 and compared three anodal tDCS montages for post-stroke dysphagia rehabilitation after hemispheric stroke.^{2 3}
• A total of 90 hemispheric stroke patients were randomized into three groups: bilateral, contralesional, and ipsilesional tDCS.^{2 3}
• All groups received anodal tDCS over the orofacial sensorimotor cortex (S1M1) — bilateral, contralesional, or ipsilesional respectively — for 20 sessions combined with exercise-based swallowing therapy.^{2 3}
• After treatment, all three groups improved significantly on both the dysphagia assessment scale and the swallow severity scale (all p < 0.01), indicating benefit from tDCS plus therapy regardless of montage.^{2 3}
• Bilateral tDCS produced significantly greater improvement than both contralesional and ipsilesional montages on the dysphagia assessment scale (all p < 0.001) and outperformed the contralesional group on the swallow severity scale (p = 0.019).^{2 3}
• Approximate entropy (ApEn) analysis of cortical activity showed increased activity in both stimulated and non-stimulated areas across both hemispheres after bilateral and unilateral tDCS, with larger bilateral cortical areas activated after the bilateral montage.^{2 3}
• The authors interpret bilateral tDCS as a more effective option for hemispheric post-stroke dysphagia, attributing its advantage to broader recruitment of neurons within the bilateral cortico-pharyngeal motor network.^{2 3}

Footnotes

1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE00VTBBSVU4WjNjZ2JTd3RnOFJsOGh5d19GbVlIdW1Ma3p5OWFzaExVWThPRXItcnQwSHc1bkNoV2x2T0ozLVByQmcyRUp0aFY0OURVbEZWXzkydm50UHFr?oc=5 ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-04939-9 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-04939-9 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷