Noninvasive brain stimulations (NIBS) will be used in healthy volunteers and in chronic stroke patients to improve bimanual activities and motor learning. Functional magnetic resonance imaging will be used to evaluate the mechanisms underlying bimanual activities and motor learning in healthy volunteers and in chronic stroke patients. A neuro-rehabilitation robot (REA2PLAN, AXINESIS, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) will be used for motor learning.
tDCS will be used in a sham-controlled, double-blind, randomized, cross-over control trial in chronic stroke patients with motor deficits. After informed consent and recruitment, patients will be randomly (computer method) allocated to real or sham tDCS, that will be applied during performance of bimanual activities and/or motor learning. A few minutes/hours/days/weeks after completing one trial's arm, the patients will enter the other trial's arm (double-blind cross-over design). Baseline and follow-up outcomes about bimanual and unimanual motor tasks will be collected. For a subset of subjects, motor learning and data acquisition will be performed with a neuro-rehabilitation robot (REA2PLAN, AXINESIS, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) .
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Enrollment
100
University Hospital CHU Dinant Godinne UcL Namur
Yvoir, Belgium
bimanual coordination
The effect of intervention on bimanual motor coordination will be quantified before, during and after executive tasks.
Time frame: up to 2 hours after intervention. Recall test at 1 week and up to,2,3,4 weeks after the intervention
standard unimanual evaluation
Performance on motor skill learning tasks and on different commonly used tasks (Purdue Pegboard, hand dynamometer, pinch dynamometer, 9-HPT, motor skill learning with a videogame, ...) will be measured to explore the impact of tDCS on these parameters in chronic stroke patients.
Time frame: immediately, 30, 60 min; and up to 2 hours after intervention. Recall test at 1 week and up to,2,3,4 weeks after the intervention)
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