NCT04577768

The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults

The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensity on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 60 (actual)
• Sponsor: Ariel University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

to investigate the effect of stimulation intensity on motor performance in healthy adults.

Detailed description

60 healthy subjects were randomly allocated to one of three groups: (a) 20-min of High-Definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) with an intensity of 2 mA (HD-tDCS 2 mA); (2) 20-min of HD-tDCS with an intensity of 1.5 mA (HD-tDCS 1.5 mA); and (3) 20-min of sham HD-tDCS (HD-tDCS sham). The stimulation was administered noninvasively using an M x N 9-channel high definition transcranial electrical current stimulator from Soterix Medical (New York, NY). The anodal stimulation targeted the right Brodmann area 4 (primary motor cortex) based on HD-Targets brain modelling software (Soterix Medical, New York, NY). Tests: The non-dominant left arm was tested. The subjects performed a sequential point-to-point movement task on the graphics tablet. Initially, the participants were required to perform 3 sequences without errors to familiarize themselves with the setup, the task and the sequence. Then, they performed the pre-test which consisted of two blocks of 6 sequences, i.e. 12 sequences, with a 30 s break between blocks. Two min after starting the appropriate stimulation, they performed 2 blocks of 6 sequences (identical to the pre-test). After finishing the tDCS stimulation, the participants performed a post-test, which was also identical to the pre-test. The participants returned after 24 hours to perform a retention test, which was equivalent to the pre- and post-tests. Two outcome measures were used: movement time (s) and the reaction time (s) of the reaching movements.

Conditions

• Healthy

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	HD-tDCS 2 mA	anodal high definition transcranial direct current stimulation of the right primary motor cortex with an intensity of 2 mA
DEVICE	HD-tDCS 1.5 mA	anodal high definition transcranial direct current stimulation of the right primary motor cortex with an intensity of 1.5 mA
DEVICE	HD-tDCS sham	sham stimulation of the right primary motor cortex

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-07-11
• Primary completion: 2020-02-10
• Completion: 2020-02-10
• First posted: 2020-10-08
• Last updated: 2020-10-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Israel