Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor cortex on short-term balance acquisition in healthy individuals.
Ömer Burak Tor, Michael A Nitsche, Edmund Wascher and 2 others
PMID 40616154WHAT IT FOUND
In healthy young adults, perturbation balance training changed several joint and brain responses.
Adding anodal tDCS produced extra short-term changes in forward sway and hip movement, but the study did not test patients or long-term function.
Key findings
01After balance training, all groups showed smaller right hip, right knee, and right ankle movements during forward perturbations, and larger right and left knee movements during backward perturbations.
02During balance training, only the anodal tDCS group showed decreased peak center of mass displacement after training in forward perturbations.
03Only the anodal tDCS group showed right and left hip movement reductions after training in forward perturbations, but intervention groups did not differ significantly after training.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The participants were healthy young adults aged 18 to 55, so the results may not apply to older adults or people with balance disorders. The sample was small, with 34 participants divided into three groups. The training lasted only three sessions within one week, so it cannot show long-term balance learning. The study did not assess blinding or side effects, so placebo effects cannot be ruled out. Cortical excitability was measured at rest rather than during balance tasks, so task-related changes may have been missed. The same perturbation size was used forward and backward, which may have made backward perturbations too easy. Some key changes were seen only before and after training within the anodal group, not between the groups after training.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Leibniz-Institut für Arbeitsforschung (IfADo). The supplied text does not list author conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the tDCS changes as evidence that adding brain stimulation to balance therapy improves patient outcomes. The participants were healthy young adults, the training was short-term, and some anodal group changes did not differ from other groups after training.