Metais Angèle, Muller Camille O, Boublay Nawale, Breuil Caroline, Guillot Aymeric, Daligault Sébastien, Di Rienzo Franck, Collet Christian, Krolak-Salmon Pierre, Saimpont Arnaud
Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Biologie de la Motricité, LIBM, Villeurbanne, France.
EuroMov Digital Health in Motion, Université Montpellier, IMT Mines Alès, Montpellier, France.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Dec 9;14:1060791. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.1060791. eCollection 2022.
Motor imagery practice (MIP) and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) are innovative methods with independent positive influence on motor sequence learning (MSL) in older adults.
The present study investigated the effect of MIP combined with a-tDCS over the primary motor cortex (M1) on the learning of a finger tapping sequence of the non-dominant hand in healthy older adults.
Thirty participants participated in this double-blind sham-controlled study. They performed three MIP sessions, one session per day over three consecutive days and a retention test 1 week after the last training session. During training / MIP, participants had to mentally rehearse an 8-element finger tapping sequence with their left hand, concomitantly to either real ( group) or sham stimulation ( group). Before and after MIP, as well as during the retention test, participants had to physically perform the same sequence as fast and accurately as possible.
Our main results showed that both groups (i) improved their performance during the first two training sessions, reflecting acquisition/on-line performance gains, (ii) stabilized their performance from one training day to another, reflecting off-line consolidation; as well as after 7 days without practice, reflecting retention, (iii) for all stages of MSL, there was no significant difference between the and groups.
This study highlights the usefulness of MIP in motor sequence learning for older adults. However, 1.5 mA a-tDCS did not enhance the beneficial effects of MIP, which adds to the inconsistency of results found in tDCS studies. Future work is needed to further explore the best conditions of use of tDCS to improve motor sequence learning with MIP.
运动想象练习（MIP）和阳极经颅直流电刺激（a-tDCS）是对老年人运动序列学习（MSL）具有独立积极影响的创新方法。
本研究调查了MIP联合a-tDCS作用于健康老年人初级运动皮层（M1）对非优势手手指敲击序列学习的影响。
30名参与者参加了这项双盲假刺激对照研究。他们进行了三次MIP训练，连续三天每天一次，并在最后一次训练后1周进行一次保持测试。在训练/MIP期间，参与者必须用左手在脑海中排练一个8元素的手指敲击序列，同时接受真实（组）或假刺激（组）。在MIP之前和之后，以及在保持测试期间，参与者必须尽可能快速准确地实际执行相同的序列。
我们的主要结果表明，两组（i）在前两次训练期间都提高了他们的表现，反映了习得/在线表现的提高，（ii）从一个训练日到另一个训练日表现稳定，反映了离线巩固；以及在7天不练习后，反映了保持，（iii）在MSL的所有阶段，组和组之间没有显著差异。
本研究强调了MIP在老年人运动序列学习中的有用性。然而，1.5 mA的a-tDCS并没有增强MIP的有益效果，这增加了tDCS研究结果的不一致性。未来需要进一步探索使用tDCS的最佳条件，以通过MIP改善运动序列学习。
