Many people who have a stroke are left with a language impairment – making it hard to speak, read or write. Now researchers are investigating whether a simple electrical current can help the brain to recover, as Health Reporter Kate Liptrot discovered.

AT first glance the head band with wires hanging from it looks worryingly like a torture device. But it is a tool researchers say may hold the key to helping people regain language they have lost after a stroke.

Fitted around the head, two pads deliver a low electrical current through the brain to stimulate brain cells in a process which is completely pain-free.

The idea has been around for more than a hundred years and is very safe, but now researchers at the University of York hope transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) may be used to help recovery of comprehension, even for those who had a stroke several years ago.

One of the people to take part in the research programme is Brian Kettlestring, 64, from Pocklington, who like his dad, brother and uncle had a stroke.

“I had been sleeping and I woke up and could not move,” Brian said, explaining how the stroke in his early 40s left him left unable to speak and with very limited mobility.

More than 20 years on, Brian’s mobility and speech is much improved, and he has become the chair of York Speakability support group to help others in a similar position. However he is still affected by chronic aphasia, a difficulty in remembering the words he wants to.

It is people such as Brian – who have difficulty in using their store of semantic information, such as the meanings of words, pictures, objects or faces – that researchers in the department of psychology hope they might help.

Professor Beth Jefferies, who is leading the Stroke Association-funded research, said: “Our research is exploring comprehension after stroke and ways to improve this.

“It is thought that knowledge about the meanings of things is often maintained in the brain after stroke, but that the sorting mechanism is lost. It’s a bit like a library without a catalogue. Only the brightest book covers – the strongly remembered items – can be picked out properly.

“The technique is not painful, and it is fairly cheap and portable, so if the research finds that the method improves comprehension, it could be used to improve the outcomes of speech and language therapy.”

Researchers ask participants to perform some tasks before, during and after the electrical stimulation. These might involve pressing buttons in response to stimuli displayed on a computer screen or saying words.

Effects can last beyond the session itself, and have previously been shown to last at least several months after finishing the study.

Prof Jefferies warns, however, that the effects may not be seen in everyone, and they can be very subtle because the current is so small.

As part of the research, which is due to carry on for a total of for two-and-a-half years, researchers are currently looking for healthy people aged between 45 and 85-years-old who have not had a stroke.

To find out more, phone Professor Beth Jefferies and her team on 01904 322866 or 01904 322937, write to her at the Department of Psychology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, or email psychology-tdcs@york.ac.uk.

• People who have aphasia and their carers are invited to York Speakability – a support and social group.

All of the committee members are individuals with aphasia and it always welcome new members.

The group meets second Thursday of every month at the Burton Stone Community Centre, in Evelyn Crescent, York, from 2pm to 4pm.

It also has a weeky coffee chat social at 2pm on the first, third and fifth Monday of the week in York Spurriergate Centre, and a monthly meal out.