Journal
CLINICAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
Volume 126, Issue 11, Pages 2189-2197Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2015.01.006
Keywords
Cross-limb transfer; Cortical plasticity; Intracortical inhibition; Ipsilateral motor cortex; Motor practice; tDCS
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Funding
- Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Award
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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. (C) 2015 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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