Cardiovascular Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Bimanual Training in Children With Cerebral Palsy.
Manda L Keller-Ross, Daniel P Chantigian, Samuel Nemanich and 1 others
PMID 33337767WHAT IT FOUND
Combining brain stimulation with hand therapy did not improve heart rate or blood pressure control in children with cerebral palsy.
The study was too small to confirm any benefit, and the treatment did not change autonomic function as hypothesized.
Key findings
01The intervention did not produce significant changes in heart rate or blood pressure from baseline to post-treatment.
02Most measures of heart rate variability, which reflect autonomic nervous system balance, showed no significant change after the treatment.
03The study was underpowered, with very low statistical power to detect changes in blood pressure, meaning a true small effect could have been missed.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (n=8), leading to low statistical power, which means the study could not reliably detect small but real effects. There was no control group, so it is impossible to know if the lack of change was due to the treatment being ineffective or other factors. Measurements were taken before and after the full 120-minute session, not during the stimulation, so immediate effects on autonomic function during the tDCS were not captured. The study was open-label, meaning participants knew they were receiving treatment, which can introduce bias in subjective or physiological responses.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the null results as proof that tDCS has no effect on autonomic function. The study was severely underpowered, and the lack of a control group means we cannot rule out that the treatment had an effect that was not detected or was masked by natural variability.