The effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha and beta frequency on motor learning

Pollok, Bettina; Boysen, Ann-Christin; Krause, Vanessa

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2015.07.049

Cited by 121 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 47 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) techniques have included direct (tDCS) or alternating current (tACS) (Krause, Meier, Dinkelbach, & Pollok, 2016;Pollok, Boysen, & Krause, 2015), or random noise (tRNS) (Saiote, Polanía, Rosenberger, Paulus, & Antal, 2013) stimulation. Since published findings using rTMS, TBS, tACS and tRNS for enhancing motor learning remain particularly sparse (Figure 1) the primary focus of the review will be on tDCSbased interventions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: A consensus and critical position paper

Buch

Santarnecchi

Antal

et al. 2017

Clinical Neurophysiology

305

267

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Motor skills are required for activities of daily living. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied in association with motor skill learning has been investigated as a tool for enhancing training effects in health and disease. Here, we review the published literature investigating whether tDCS can facilitate the acquisition and retention of motor skills and adaptation. A majority of reports focused on the application of anodal tDCS over the primary motor cortex (M1) during motor skill acquisition, while some evaluated tDCS applied over the cerebellum during adaptation of existing motor skills. Work in multiple laboratories is under way to develop a mechanistic understanding of tDCS effects on different forms of learning, and to optimize stimulation protocols.Efforts are required to improve reproducibility and standardization. Overall, reproducibility remains to be fully tested, effect sizes with present techniques are moderate (up to d= 0.5) (Hashemirad, Zoghi, Fitzgerald, & Jaberzadeh, 2016) and the basis of inter-individual variability in tDCS effects is incompletely understood. It is recommended that future studies explicitly state in the Methods the exploratory (hypothesisgenerating) or hypothesis-driven (confirmatory) nature of the experimental designs. General research practices could be improved with prospective pre-registration of hypothesis-based investigations, more emphasis on detailed description of methods and use of post-publication open data repositories. A checklist is proposed for reporting tDCS investigations in a way that can improve efforts to assess reproducibility.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: A consensus and critical position paper

Buch

Santarnecchi

Antal

et al. 2017

Clinical Neurophysiology

305

267

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, Antal et al [24] reported that 10 Hz tACS tends to decrease MEP amplitudes. Moreover, several studies have shown that 10 Hz tACS over M1 modulates motor behavior [26] or motor learning [24,29], and these effects are different from the modulation of 20 Hz tACS [26,29,30]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the behavioral effects, 20 Hz tACS slowed voluntary movements [26–28], whereas 10 Hz tACS increased movement variability, especially in tasks requiring pacing [26]. Similarly, motor sequence learning was differentially affected by 10 and 20 Hz tACS, depending on the stimulation state (during or after stimulation) [29,30]. These results suggest that 10 and 20 Hz tACS have differential effects on sensorimotor areas by modulating ongoing α and β oscillations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase and Frequency-Dependent Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Motor Cortical Excitability

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can entrain ongoing brain oscillations and modulate the motor system in a frequency-dependent manner. Recent animal studies have demonstrated that the phase of a sinusoidal current also has an important role in modulation of neuronal activity. However, the phase effects of tACS on the human motor system are largely unknown. Here, we systematically investigated the effects of tACS phase and frequency on the primary motor cortex (M1) by using motor evoked potentials (MEPs) with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). First, we compared the phase effects (90°, 180°, 270° or 360°) of 10 and 20 Hz tACS on MEPs. The 20 Hz tACS significantly increased M1 excitability compared with the 10 Hz tACS at 90° phase only. Second, we studied the 90° phase effect on MEPs at different tACS frequencies (5, 10, 20 or 40 Hz). The 20 vs. 10 Hz difference was again observed, but the 90° phase in 5 and 40 Hz tACS did not influence M1 excitability. Third, the 90° phase effects of 10 and 20 Hz tACS were compared with sham stimulation. The 90° phase of 20 Hz tACS enhanced MEP amplitudes compared with sham stimulation, but there was no significant effect of 10 Hz tACS. Taken together, we assume that the differential 90° phase effects on 20 Hz and 10 Hz tACS can be attributed to the neural synchronization modulated by tACS. Our results further underline that phase and frequency are the important factors in the effects of tACS on M1 excitability.

show abstract

“…However, when tACS is applied outside the typical EEG frequency range (e.g., at 140, 600 Hz, and in the low kHz range), tDCS-like neuroplastic excitability alterations are more likely to occur (Moliadze et al 2010(Moliadze et al , 2012Chaieb et al 2011). Recently, Pollok and co-workers (Pollok et al 2015) investigated the effects of tACS over the left primary motor cortex within the alpha and beta-frequency bands on motor sequence learning as indexed by a serial reaction time task (SRTT). Results in 26 participants show that SRTT performance significantly improved at 10 and 20 Hz-tACS.…”

Section: Improvements In Motor Sequence Learning and Motor Skill Learmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noninvasive Brain Stimulation and Neural Entrainment Enhance Athletic Performance—a Review

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Brain stimulation and neural entrainment relying on noninvasive techniques, applied to sports, might enhance brain activity in healthy athletes to improve their physical performance. In the past, several studies have employed stimulation procedures, either during athletic training or during separate sessions, to enhance physical and mental performance. Here, we review the available physiological and behavioral studies to clarify if and under which conditions noninvasive brain stimulation and neural entrainment might enhance athletic performance. Even though many studies suffer from small sample size, the results, compared to traditional training procedures, suggest advantages with regard to motor learning, motion perception, muscular strength, or decrements in muscle fatigue. Further, these techniques seem to be useful in fine-tuning crucial aspects of competitive sports such as speeding up the learning rate of specific motor skills. Although more research is needed to fully understand the effects of noninvasive brain stimulation and neural entrainment on athletic performance, we conclude that these emerging techniques are promising tools to enhance physical and mental performances in sports.

show abstract

The effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at alpha and beta frequency on motor learning

Cited by 121 publications

References 47 publications

Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: A consensus and critical position paper

Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: A consensus and critical position paper

Phase and Frequency-Dependent Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Motor Cortical Excitability

Noninvasive Brain Stimulation and Neural Entrainment Enhance Athletic Performance—a Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About