Transcranial Electrical Stimulation
Conditions
Keywords
Motor learning, Cerebellum transcranial electrical stimulation, Postural balance, Error feedback, Electroencephalography, Elderly
Brief summary
Motor learning relies on both feedback and feedforward mechanisms to keep progressive optimization of motor behaviors in a coordinated manner. Error correction based on the fronto-parietal loop is subject to error information inherent within visual feedback. On the other hand, cerebellar activity for restoration of efferent copy involves in operation of feedforward mechanism. Therefore, the amount of error feedback and excitation of cerebellum are keyed to effectiveness of motor learning. Although postural training is of empirical value to prevent falling from the elderly, yet none of previous studies have ever been devoted to improve effectiveness of postural training via manipulations of visual error feedback and cerebellar stimulation. From the aspect of cognition-motor interaction, the present proposal is a three-year project intended to promote effectiveness of postural training for the elderly. In the first year, feedback-based training benefits from a dynamic postural task under the conditions of different visual size of error feedback (error-reducing feedback, error-enhancing feedback, and fixed error feedback) will be contrasted. In the second year, feedforward-based training benefits from a dynamic postural task by application of cerebellum transcranial electrical stimulation (ctDCS) of different modes (direct current vs. noise vs. sham) will be contrasted. In the third year, the proposal will examine whether postural training with combined approach (error-enhancing feedback and ctDCS) could result in a superior training benefit to those of error-enhancing feedback alone and ctDCS alone approaches. In addition to innovative training intervention, this proposal will make use of current non-linear analyses on EEG signals and postural sway with graph analysis and heading analysis, respectively. It is expected to gain additional insight into behavior and brain mechanisms underlying learning-related changes with the postural training, potentially lending to a more effective training paradigm for postural stability of the elderly.
Interventions
DEVICEcerebellar transcranial stimulation
Feedforward-based training benefits from a dynamic postural task by application of cerebellum transcranial electrical stimulation (ctDCS) of different modes (direct current vs. noise vs. sham) were administered using a one-channel direct current stimulator (NeuroConn DC-Stimulator PlusTM) with study mode enabled for single blinding. Following the baseline trial of posture tracking, participants of three groups were seated in a chair for 20 min to receive either active or sham cerebellar tDCS prior to the posture tracking and transfer test phases.
Sponsors
National Cheng-Kung University Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
60 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Age above 60 years old healthy older adults without a history of falls. * Able to understand and give informed consent. * The Mini-Mental State Examination test score above 25-30. * Lower limb muscle strength is evaluated as G grade * The corrected visual acuity was within the normal range.
Exclusion criteria
* Any known history of mental illness * Any neuromuscular or degenerative neurological disease(ex:stroke、SCI、TBI...etc) * Any known history of cerebral cerebellar disease or intracranial metal implants. * Weak of hearing or wearing a hearing aid
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Graph theoretical analysis of EEG functional network | through study completion, an average of 1 year | Graph theory will characterize EEG functional connectivity and brain network efficiency regarding to brain mechanisms for practice-related leaning transfer.This project introduced EEG pattern analysis into the posture research project. It is expected to find out the changes in brain network efficiency and functional structure caused by posture training. It is a tool for understanding the neural mechanism of this project. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| heading analysis of center of pressure | through study completion, an average of 1 year | Trajectories of central of pressure will be analyzed with stabilogram diffusion analysis to reveal behavior mechanisms for practice-related variations in feedback and feedforward process for error corrections. |
Outcome results
None listed