Journal
NEUROBIOLOGY OF AGING
Volume 31, Issue 12, Pages 2160-2168Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2008.12.008
Keywords
Healthy ageing; Sensorimotor; Complex movements; Brain stimulation; Transcranial direct current stimulation; tDCS; Activities of daily living
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Funding
- NINDS
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- FFM of the University of Hamburg [NWF04/07]
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Healthy ageing is accompanied by limitations in performance of activities of daily living and personal independence. Recent reports demonstrated improvements in motor function induced by noninvasive anodal direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the primary motor cortex (M1) in young healthy adults. Here we tested the hypothesis that a single session of anodal tDCS over left M1 could facilitate performance of right upper extremity tasks required for activities of daily living (Jebsen-Taylor hand function test, JTT) in older subjects relative to Sham in a double-blind cross-over study design. We found (a) significant improvement in JTT function with tDCS relative to Sham that outlasted the stimulation period by at least 30 min, (b) that the older the subjects the more prominent this improvement appeared and (c) that consistent with previous results in younger subjects, these effects were not accompanied by any overt undesired side effect. We conclude that anodal tDCS applied over M1 can facilitate performance of skilled hand functions required for activities of daily living in older subjects. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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