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The effects of anodal-tDCS on cross-limb transfer in older adults

journal contribution
posted on 2015-11-01, 00:00 authored by Alicia Goodwill, Robin DalyRobin Daly, Dawson Kidgell
OBJECTIVE: Age-related neurodegeneration may interfere with the ability to respond to cross-limb transfer, whereby bilateral performance improvements accompany unilateral practice. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would facilitate this phenomena in older adults. METHODS: 12 young and 12 older adults underwent unilateral visuomotor tracking (VT), with anodal or sham-tDCS over the ipsilateral motor cortex. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) assessed motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and short interval intracortical inhibition (SICI). Performance was quantified through a VT error. Variables were assessed bilaterally at baseline and post-intervention. RESULTS: The trained limb improved performance, facilitated MEPs and released SICI in both age groups. In the untrained limb, VT improved in young for both sham and anodal-tDCS conditions, but only following anodal-tDCS for the older adults. MEPs increased in all conditions, except the older adult's receiving sham. SICI was released in both tDCS conditions for young and old. CONCLUSION: Following a VT task, older adults still display use-dependent plasticity. Although no significant age-related differences between the outcome measures, older adults exhibited significant cross-limb transfer of performance following anodal-tDCS, which was otherwise absent following motor practice alone. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings provide clinical implications for conditions restricting the use of one limb, such as stroke.

History

Journal

Clinical neurophysiology

Volume

126

Issue

11

Pagination

2189 - 2197

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

eISSN

1872-8952

Language

eng

Publication classification

C Journal article; C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2015, Elsevier