MI Practice and tDCS With Aging

NCT02813291 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 69HCL15_0719
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 64
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The mental repetition of movements - or motor imagery (MI) practice - facilitates motor learning. It allows avoiding fatigue that occurs during physical practice; this method is thus particularly interesting for elderly people. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive method of neurostimulation during which a low direct current is applied to the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp. This method has been successfully used to enhance motor learning in both young and elderly subjects. The main aim of this study is to assess the impact of MI practice combined with tDCS on the learning of a complex finger sequence, in young and elderly subjects. For that purpose, young and elderly healthy subjects will be randomly assigned to Stimulation and Sham groups. There will thus be a total of four groups: Young Stim, Young Sham, Elderly Stim, and Elderly Sham. All subjects will participate to three training sessions spread over five days, and a retention test one week after the third training session. During training they will mentally repeat a complex finger sequence with the left hand, for 13 min:

• Subjects of the Stimulation groups (Young Stim and Elderly Stim) will receive in parallel an anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex.
• Subjects of the Sham groups (Young Sham and Elderly Sham) will receive in parallel a sham tDCS of the primary motor cortex. Immediately before (pretest) and after (posttest) each training session, as well as during the retention test, subjects will repeat the sequence as many times of possible, for 1 min. During these tests (pretests, posttests and retention test) electroencephalographic activity will be recorded to assess the Mu rhythm power.

Conditions

Aging; Motor Learning

Keywords

Motor imagery; transcranial direct current stimulation; motor learning; aging

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Change in the number of correct sequences between first pretest and retention test

  Change will be calculated using the following formulae: (number of correct sequences at retention test - number of correct sequences at first pretest) / number of correct sequences at first pretest × 100

  The number of correct sequences will be assessed at pretest of the first training session (day 1) and at retention test (day 10).

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Change in the number of correct sequences between first pretest and third posttest

  The number of correct sequences will be assessed at pretest of the first training session (day 1) and at posttest of the third training session (day 3)

• Change in the power of the Mu rhythm between first pretest and retention test

  The power of the Mu rhythm will be assessed at pretest of the first training session (day 1) and at retention test (day 10)

• Change in the power of the Mu rhythm between first pretest and third posttest

  The power of the Mu rhythm will be assessed at pretest of the first training session (day 1) and at posttest of the third session (day 3)

Study Arms (4)

Stimulation group (Young Stim)

EXPERIMENTAL

Subjects of the Stimulation groups (Young Stim and Elderly Stim) will receive in parallel an anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Device: tDCS

Stimulation group (Elderly Stim)

EXPERIMENTAL

Subjects of the Stimulation groups (Young Stim and Elderly Stim) will receive in parallel an anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Device: tDCS

Sham group (Young Sham)

SHAM COMPARATOR

Subjects of the Sham groups (Young Sham and Elderly Sham) will receive in parallel a sham tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Device: sham tDCS

Sham group (Elderly Sham)

SHAM COMPARATOR

Subjects of the Sham groups (Young Sham and Elderly Sham) will receive in parallel a sham tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Device: sham tDCS

Interventions

tDCS DEVICE

All subjects will mentally repeat a complex finger sequence with the left hand, for 13 min: \- Subjects of the Stimulation groups (Young Stim and Elderly Stim) will receive in parallel an anodal tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Stimulation group (Elderly Stim); Stimulation group (Young Stim)

sham tDCS DEVICE

All subjects will mentally repeat a complex finger sequence with the left hand, for 13 min: \- Subjects of the Sham groups (Young Sham and Elderly Sham) will receive in parallel a sham tDCS of the primary motor cortex.

Sham group (Elderly Sham); Sham group (Young Sham)

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 20 Years - 80 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Being aged between 20 and 35 years for the young subjects / between 65 and 80 years for the elderly subjects
• For elderly subjects: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) ≥ 24
• Being a male or a female
• Being right handed
• Taking an effective method of contraception for the women of childbearing age
• Having signed the consent form
• Being registered with a social security scheme

You may not qualify if:

• Presenting a neurologic, psychiatric or motor trouble
• Practicing or having practiced at least 5 hours by week an activity involving a high manual dexterity (e.g. piano)
• Showing any contraindication to tDCS:
• History of epilepsy
• head trauma with loss of consciousness
• Implanted material (pacemaker, surgical clips, metal specks in the skull, etc.)
• Past neurosurgical intervention
• Open sore on the scalp
• Consumption of more than three glasses of alcohol daily
• Use of drugs
• Pregnancy (positive pregnancy test)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospices Civils de Lyon: lead

Study Sites (1)

Hospices Civils de Lyon - Hôpital des Charpennes - 27, rue Gabriel Péri

Villeurbanne, 69100, France

Location

Related Publications (2)

• Metais A., Muller C., Breuil C., Boublay N., di Rienzo F., Guillot A., Collet C., Krolak-Salmon P., Saimpont A. (2020). P143 Effects of Anodal tDCS combined with motor imagery on motor sequence learning in older adults. Clinical Neurophysiology 131(4):e93-e94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2019.12.254

  BACKGROUND

• Muller C., Breuil C., Boublay N., Metais A., di Rienzo F., Guillot A., Collet C., Krolak-Salmon P., Saimpont A. (2020). P47 Effects of motor imagery and anodal tDCS on motor sequence learning in healthy young adults. Clinical Neurophysiology 131(4):e38-e39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2019.12.158

  BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Electric Stimulation Therapy; Therapeutics; Convulsive Therapy; Psychiatric Somatic Therapies; Behavioral Disciplines and Activities; Electroshock; Psychological Techniques

Study Officials

• Pierre Krolak-Salmon, Pr, PU-PH

  Hospices Civils de Lyon - Hôpital des Charpennes

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 22, 2016
• First Posted: June 24, 2016
• Study Start: April 26, 2017
• Primary Completion: March 22, 2019
• Study Completion: March 22, 2019
• Last Updated: September 3, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FR (1)