Comparison of transcranial direct current stimulation of primary motor cortex and cerebellum on static balance in older adults

Background and Aim : Falling is a major problem in older adults. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique to improve balance in older people. The majority of previous studies assessed the effect of cerebellar and M1 tDCS but a less attention has been yet paid to compare the effect of stimulation of these two regions. The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of tDCS on cerebellum and M1 on balance in older adults.Methods : In this cross over double-blinded sham-controlled design study, 32 healthy older adults assigned randomly in two groups of M1 and cerebellum tDCS. Each groups received active and sham stimulation in a cross over design with one week interval. Before and after of each session the mediolateral and anterioposterior postural sway was assessed by force plate in single and dual task conditionsResults : The Mixed ANOVA analysis showed that the main effect of time and interaction between time and stimulation condition (active or sham) is significant in both groups of M1 and cerebellum for total path length and mean velocity of center of pressure in both directions and both balance task conditions. There was no significant difference in efficacy of cerebellar and M1 stimulation in between group analysis.Conclusion : Anodal tDCS of cerebellum and M1 could improve postural balance indices in healthy older adults and these two techniques have similar effects on static balance.

Keywords:

transcranial direct current stimulation , Postural balance , older adults , cerebellum , M1