The purpose of this study is to study motor learning and recovery of patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). It is hypothesized that anodal tDCS on the lesion side and/or cathodal tDCS on the healthy side of motor cortex could improve the recovery of motor function such as learning.
We aim to apply transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to study the recovery process of motor learning on the patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke. Both anodal and cathodal tDCS will be used to test whether the increase of motor cortical activity by anodal tDCS over lesional side or the decrease of brain activity by cathodal tDCS on healthy side will improve the learning skill (SRTT: serial reaction time task). The result could help to understand the mechanism of motor and cognitive recovery after brain damage, and further rationalize the application of non-invasive brain stimulation such as tDCS for patient rehabilitation.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Dpt. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, NTUH
Taipei, Taiwan
Reaction time (millisecond)
Primary outcome measure is the average reaction time of 360 trials from each block -- the task is composed of 8 blocks. After intervention, 3 blocks will be re-tested for 3 times to evaluate the consolidating effect of tDCS on motor learning.
Time frame: 24 hours post intervention
Error rate (percentage)
Secondary outcome measure is the error rate of each block which will be re-tested for 3 times after intervention. The aim is to evaluate the motor learning effect during and after tDCS.
Time frame: 24 hours post intervention
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