Improving motor performance without training: the effect of combining mirror visual feedback with transcranial direct current stimulation.
J Neurophysiol
; 113(7): 2383-9, 2015 Apr 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25632079
ABSTRACT
Mirror visual feedback (MVF) during motor training has been shown to improve motor performance of the untrained hand. Here we thought to determine if MVF-induced performance improvements of the left hand can be augmented by upregulating plasticity in right primary motor cortex (M1) by means of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) while subjects trained with the right hand. Participants performed a ball-rotation task with either their left (untrained) or right (trained) hand on two consecutive days (days 1 and 2). During training with the right hand, MVF was provided concurrent with two tDCS conditions group 1 received a-tDCS over right M1 (n = 10), whereas group 2 received sham tDCS (s-tDCS, n = 10). On day 2, performance was reevaluated under the same experimental conditions compared with day 1 but without tDCS. While baseline performance of the left hand (day 1) was not different between groups, a-tDCS exhibited stronger MVF-induced performance improvements compared with s-tDCS. Similar results were observed for day 2 (without tDCS application). A control experiment (n = 8) with a-tDCS over right M1 as outlined above but without MVF revealed that left hand improvement was significantly less pronounced than that induced by combined a-tDCS and MVF. Based on these results, we provide novel evidence that upregulating activity in the untrained M1 by means of a-tDCS is capable of augmenting MVF-induced performance improvements in young normal volunteers. Our findings suggest that concurrent MVF and tDCS might have synergistic and additive effects on motor performance of the untrained hand, a result of relevance for clinical approaches in neurorehabilitation and/or exercise science.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Retroalimentação Sensorial
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Estimulação Transcraniana por Corrente Contínua
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Ilusões
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Aprendizagem
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Destreza Motora
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Movimento
Tipo de estudo:
Clinical_trials
Limite:
Adult
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Female
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Humans
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Male
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2015
Tipo de documento:
Article