Transcranial direct current stimulation leads to faster acquisition of motor skills, but effects are not maintained at retention.

ABSTRACT: Practice is required to improve one's shooting technique in basketball or to play a musical instrument well. Learning these motor skills may be further enhanced by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). We aimed to investigate whether tDCS leads to faster attainment of a motor skill, and to confirm prior work showing it improves skill acquisition and retention performance. Fifty-two participants were tested; half received tDCS with the anode on primary motor cortex and cathode on the contralateral forehead while concurrently practicing a sequential visuomotor isometric pinch force task on Day 1, while the other half received sham tDCS during practice. On Day 2, retention of the skill was tested. Results from a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that participants in the anodal g

SUBMITTER: Kunaratnam N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9469971 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature