Dual-hemisphere tDCS facilitates greater improvements for healthy subjects' non-dominant hand compared to uni-hemisphere stimulation |
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Authors: | Bradley W Vines Carlo Cerruti Gottfried Schlaug |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, 02215 Boston, MA, USA;(2) Institute of Mental Health,Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, V6T 1Z3 Vancouver, BC, Canada;(3) Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA |
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Abstract: | Background Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive technique that has been found to modulate the excitability
of neurons in the brain. The polarity of the current applied to the scalp determines the effects of tDCS on the underlying
tissue: anodal tDCS increases excitability, whereas cathodal tDCS decreases excitability. Research has shown that applying
anodal tDCS to the non-dominant motor cortex can improve motor performance for the non-dominant hand, presumably by means
of changes in synaptic plasticity between neurons. Our previous studies also suggest that applying cathodal tDCS over the
dominant motor cortex can improve performance for the non-dominant hand; this effect may result from modulating inhibitory
projections (interhemispheric inhibition) between the motor cortices of the two hemispheres. We hypothesized that stimultaneously
applying cathodal tDCS over the dominant motor cortex and anodal tDCS over the non-dominant motor cortex would have a greater
effect on finger sequence performance for the non-dominant hand, compared to stimulating only the non-dominant motor cortex.
Sixteen right-handed participants underwent three stimulation conditions: 1) dual-hemisphere – with anodal tDCS over the non-dominant
motor cortex, and cathodal tDCS over the dominant motor cortex, 2) uni-hemisphere – with anodal tDCS over the non-dominant
motor cortex, and 3) sham tDCS. Participants performed a finger-sequencing task with the non-dominant hand before and after
each stimulation. The dependent variable was the percentage of change in performance, comparing pre- and post-tDCS scores. |
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