Effect of online and offline high definition transcranial direct current stimulation on finger motor skill learning in healthy adults:a randomized controlled trial
Objective To investigate the effect of high definition transcranial direct current stimulation(HD-tDCS)at different stim-ulation timings(online and offline)on finger motor skill learning in healthy adults.Methods From March to November,2022,31 right-handed male participants were recruited from Shenyang Sport Uni-versity and randomly assigned to three groups,who received online,offline or sham HD-tDCS respectively dur-ing the three-day sequential visual isometric pinch task learning process.The daily motor skill learning gains,to-tal motor skill learning gains and speed-accuracy function(SAF)were observed.Results The daily motor skill learning gains increased in all the groups,and it was the best in the online group(F=24.692,P<0.001);the learning gains were better in the online group than in the offline group(t=4.732,P<0.001)and the sham group(t=3.839,P=0.004)on the third day.The total motor skill learning gains were ranked as the online group=the offline group>the sham group.SAF data indicated that the online group outper-formed both the offline and sham groups.Conclusion HD-tDCS can promote the finger motor skill learning in healthy adults,and online HD-tDCS is more effec-tive.
repetitive high definition transcranial direct current stimulationonline stimulationoffline stimulationmotor skill learningrandomized controlled trial