Posttraining Alpha Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Impairs Motor Consolidation in Elderly People.

Posttraining Alpha Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Impairs Motor Consolidation in Elderly People. Neural Plast. 2019;2019:2689790 Authors: Rumpf JJ, Barbu A, Fricke C, Wegscheider M, Classen J Abstract The retention of a new sequential motor skill relies on repeated practice and subsequent consolidation in the absence of active skill practice. While the early phase of skill acquisition remains relatively unaffected in older adults, posttraining consolidation appears to be selectively impaired by advancing age. Motor learning is associated with posttraining changes of oscillatory alpha and beta neuronal activities in the motor cortex. However, whether or not these oscillatory dynamics relate to posttraining consolidation and how they relate to the age-specific impairment of motor consolidation in older adults remains elusive. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique capable of modulating such neuronal oscillations. Here, we examined whether tACS targeting M1 immediately following explicit motor sequence training is capable of modulating motor skill consolidation in older adults. In two sets of double-blind, sham-controlled experiments, tACS targeting left M1 was applied at either 10 Hz (alpha-tACS) or 20 Hz (beta-tACS) immediately after termination of a motor sequence training with the right (dominant) hand. Task performance was retested after an interval of 6 ho...
Source: Neural Plasticity - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neural Plast Source Type: research