%0 Journal Article
%T Dual-hemisphere tDCS facilitates greater improvements for healthy subjects' non-dominant hand compared to uni-hemisphere stimulation
%A Bradley W Vines
%A Carlo Cerruti
%A Gottfried Schlaug
%J BMC Neuroscience
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2202-9-103
%X A repeated measures ANOVA yielded a significant effect of tDCS condition (F(2,30) = 4.468, p = .037). Post-hoc analyses revealed that dual-hemisphere stimulation improved performance significantly more than both uni-hemisphere (p = .021) and sham stimulation (p = .041).We propose that simultaneously applying cathodal tDCS over the dominant motor cortex and anodal tDCS over the non-dominant motor cortex produced an additive effect, which facilitated motor performance in the non-dominant hand. These findings are relevant to motor skill learning and to research studies of motor recovery after stroke.Techniques that stimulate the brain non-invasively hold the promise of revealing causal relations between brain regions and brain functions [1]. Furthermore, these techniques may also facilitate skill acquisition, learning and neural plasticity [2-4]. Because it is portable, relatively inexpensive, and free from any major side-effects, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is ideally suited for use in stroke recovery therapies [5,6]. tDCS modulates regional brain activity by altering the membrane potential of neurons [7,8]. The effects of tDCS on a population of neurons are determined by the polarity of stimulation ¨C anodal stimulation increases excitability and cathodal stimulation decreases excitability. Changes in excitability induced by tDCS are mediated by activity in sodium and calcium ion channels in the membranes of neurons, and by the efficiency of receptors for NMDA neurotransmitters [7,9].Applying tDCS over the motor cortex has the potential to facilitate improvements in motor functioning. Research with healthy participants revealed that applying anodal tDCS over the motor cortex can improve performance for the hand contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere [10-12]. Stroke-recovery research has also explored the potential benefits of using tDCS, or tDCS in combination with physical or occupational therapy. For example, studies have reported that applyin
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/9/103