Effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on the psychomotor, cognitive, and motor performances of power athletes

Abstract

In sports science, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has many unknown effects on neuromuscular, psychomotor and cognitive aspects. Particularly, its impact on power performances remains poorly investigated. Eighteen healthy young males, all trained in a jumping sport (parkour) performed three experimental sessions: anodal tDCS applied either on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC, cathode in supraorbital area) or on the primary motor cortex (M1, cathode on contralateral shoulder), and a placebo condition (SHAM), each applied for 20 min at 2 mA. Pre and post, maximal vertical and horizontal jumps were performed, associated to leg neuromuscular assessment through electromyography and peripheral nerve stimulations. Actual and imagined pointing tasks were also performed to evaluate fine motor skills, and a full battery of cognitive and psychomotor tests was administered. M1 tDCS improved jump performance accompanied by an increase in supraspinal and spinal excitabilities. dlPFC stimulation only impacted the pointing tasks. No effect on cognitive tests was found for any of the tDCS conditions. To conclude, the type of performance (maximal versus accurate) affected depended upon the tDCS montage. Finally, athletes responded well to tDCS for motor performance while results to cognitive tests seemed unaffected, at least when implemented with the present rationale.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Enhances Muscle Strength of Non-dominant Knee in Healthy Young Males

“…Synaptic plasticity in the motor cortex is associated with muscular strength and can be modified by tDCS. Some studies have shown that this technique could effectively improve training and increase performance ( Huang et al, 2019 ; Alix-Fages et al, 2020 ; Vieira et al, 2020 ; Grosprêtre et al, 2021 ). Some studies have shown that tDCS does not affect lower limb strength ( Montenegro et al, 2015 ; Maeda et al, 2017 ; Romero-Arenas et al, 2019 ); however, this may be related to differences in the chosen electrode configuration or stimulation parameters.…”

The Influence of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Shooting Performance in Elite Deaflympic Athletes: A Case Series

“…The program then calculated the x, y coordinates for the F3 location (according to the international 10–20 system) of DLPFC for each participant. Anodal DLPFC-tDCS was delivered using previously determined effective parameters for improving fine and gross motor performance (duration 25 min; current 2 mA; anode over left DLPFC; cathode over the contralateral supra-orbital region) [ 10 , 11 , 15 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Thus, the stimulation was applied to the DLPFC of the dominant hemisphere-arm system as all subjects were right-handed.…”

“…The vast majority of these studies have targeted the primary motor cortex (M1) with tDCS [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. However, tDCS of other brain areas, such as the cerebellum [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], and supplementary motor area (SMA) [ 16 , 17 ], has also led to enhanced motor performance. The most common finding is that a 10 to 20-min tDCS application given simultaneously with motor practice improves motor skill by approximately 10% during and immediately after practice [ 1 ].…”

“…This was accomplished by having participants complete a set of practice sessions in a DLPFC-tDCS condition and a SHAM condition in a cross-over design with a week washout period. Based on previous single session DLPFC-tDCS studies that involved relatively simple motor tasks in healthy young adults [ 10 , 11 , 15 ] and studies in relatively novice shooters [ 12 , 13 ], it was hypothesized that DLPFC-tDCS would enhance shooting performance to a greater degree compared to practice alone (SHAM stimulation). Specifically, it was expected that shooting performance would progressively improve over the three days of DLPFC-tDCS application, whereas shooting performance would remain relatively constant over the course of the three days of SHAM stimulation.…”

“…The left DLPFC was targeted with anodal tDCS as opposed to other stimulation montages (e.g., cathodal tDCS of left or right DLPFC) primarily because the greatest number of both motor skill [ 10 , 11 , 15 ] and gross motor [ 24 , 25 , 26 ] studies had used this set of parameters. In addition, DLPFC-tDCS was given during task practice as opposed to before or during, as previous studies have achieved the best results when tDCS is applied concurrently with motor practice [ 5 , 18 , 19 ].…”