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The mental repetition of movements - or motor imagery (MI) practice - facilitates motor learning. It allows avoiding fatigue that occurs during physical practice; this method is thus particularly interesting for elderly people. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive method of neurostimulation during which a low direct current is applied to the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp. This method has been successfully used to enhance motor learning in both young and elderly subjects.
The main aim of this study is to assess the impact of MI practice combined with tDCS on the learning of a complex finger sequence, in young and elderly subjects.
For that purpose, young and elderly healthy subjects will be randomly assigned to Stimulation and Sham groups. There will thus be a total of four groups: Young Stim, Young Sham, Elderly Stim, and Elderly Sham.
All subjects will participate to three training sessions spread over five days, and a retention test one week after the third training session.
During training they will mentally repeat a complex finger sequence with the left hand, for 13 min:
Immediately before (pretest) and after (posttest) each training session, as well as during the retention test, subjects will repeat the sequence as many times of possible, for 1 min. During these tests (pretests, posttests and retention test) electroencephalographic activity will be recorded to assess the Mu rhythm power.
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Presenting a neurologic, psychiatric or motor trouble
Practicing or having practiced at least 5 hours by week an activity involving a high manual dexterity (e.g. piano)
Showing any contraindication to tDCS:
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64 participants in 4 patient groups
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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov
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