1 research outputs found
Acquisition and consolidation of implicit motor learning with physical and mental practice across multiple days of anodal tDCS
Background: Acquisition and consolidation of a new motor skill occurs gradually over long time span. Motor
imagery (MI) and brain stimulation have been showed as beneficial approaches that boost motor learning, but
little is known about the extent of their combined effects.
Objective: Here, we aimed to investigate, for the first time, whether delivering multiple sessions of transcranial
direct current stimulation (tDCS) over primary motor cortex during physical and MI practice might improve
implicit motor sequence learning in a young population.
Methods: Participants practiced a serial reaction time task (SRTT) either physically or through MI, and concomitantly received either an anodal (excitatory) or sham stimulation over the primary motor cortex during
three successive days. The effect of anodal tDCS on the general motor skill and sequence specific learning were
assessed on both acquisition (within-day) and consolidation (between-day) processes. We further compared the
magnitude of motor learning reached after a single and three daily sessions of tDCS.
Results: The main finding showed that anodal tDCS boosted MI practice, but not physical practice, during the
first acquisition session. A second major result showed that compared to sham stimulation, multiple daily session
of anodal tDCS, for both types of practice, resulted in greater implicit motor sequence learning rather than a
single session of stimulation.
Conclusions: The present study is of particular importance in the context of rehabilitation, where we postulate
that scheduling mental training when patients are not able to perform physical movement might beneficiate
from concomitant and consecutive brain stimulation sessions over M1 to promote functional recovery