Health Trials

Investigating the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Different Brain Regions on Ankle Tracking Motor Learning, Motor Adaptation, and Brain Connectivity in Healthy Middle-aged and Older Adults and Patients With Subcortical Stroke

ConditionsTranscranial Direct Current StimulationAnkleMotor LearningAdaptationBrain StructureBrain ConnectivityStroke
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age40-80
SponsorNational Taiwan University Hospital

About this trial

Ankle control is essential to safe over-ground navigation for humans. Middle- aged and older adults and patients with stroke whose ankle control is poor often lose their balance or fall. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging non-invasive brain stimulation technology that has great potential to be applied to neurorehabilitation; however, the optimization of its applications still needs further studies. The aims of this project are to compare the effects of anodal tDCS (AtDCS) applied to the primary motor cortex (M1) contralateral to the moving leg (cM1), posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contralateral to the moving leg (cPPC), and cerebellar cortex (CBM) ipsilateral to the moving leg (iCBM) on motor learning, motor adaptation, and brain connectivity in healthy middle-aged and older adults and hemiparetic patients with chronic subcortical stroke.

Eligibility criteria

Qualifiers

age between 40 and 80 years old

intact cognitive function (MMSE ≧ 27)

normal ankle dorsiflexor and plantarflexor strength (manual muscle strength testing= 5) and passive range of motion (ankle dorsiflexion ≧10 degrees; ankle plantarflexion ≧ 45 degrees)

corrected far vision ≥ 0.8 (Landolt C test) and uncorrected near vision ≥ 0.04 (Comprehensive Color Blindness Checklist)

Disqualifiers

having any contraindications for MRI or tDCS;

serious or uncontrolled systematic diseases;

symptoms or history of neurological diseases, including transient ischemic attack, stroke, epilepsy, history of abnormal electroencephalogram (EEG), meningitis, encephalitis, brain tumors, brain surgery, and sensory disorders, etc.;

severe musculoskeletal problems that would affect lower limb functions;

Trial design

Treatments tested in this trial

  • cM1 transcranial direct current stimulation
  • cPPC transcranial direct current stimulation
  • iCBM transcranial direct current stimulation
  • sham transcranial direct current stimulation

Treatment groups

120 Participants
are divided into 4 treatment groups

Sponsors and collaborators

National Taiwan University Hospital

Lead sponsor

Source ClinicalTrials.gov