scholarly journals Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in People with Parkinson’s Disease: A Pilot Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig D. Workman ◽  
Alexandra C. Fietsam ◽  
Ergun Y. Uc ◽  
Thorsten Rudroff
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Berg Balance Scale ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Balance Performance ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Limited Effectiveness ◽  
Cerebellar Tdcs

People with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD) often experience gait and balance problems that substantially impact their quality of life. Pharmacological, surgical, and rehabilitative treatments have limited effectiveness and many PwPD continue to experience gait and balance impairment. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may represent a viable therapeutic adjunct. The effects of lower intensity tDCS (2 mA) over frontal brain areas, in unilateral and bilateral montages, has previously been explored; however, the effects of lower and higher intensity cerebellar tDCS (2 mA and 4 mA, respectively) on gait and balance has not been investigated. Seven PwPD underwent five cerebellar tDCS conditions (sham, unilateral 2 mA, bilateral 2 mA, unilateral 4 mA, and bilateral 4 mA) for 20 min. After a 10 min rest, gait and balance were tested. The results indicated that the bilateral 4 mA cerebellar tDCS condition had a significantly higher Berg Balance Scale score compared to sham. This study provides preliminary evidence that a single session of tDCS over the cerebellum, using a bilateral configuration at a higher intensity (4 mA), significantly improved balance performance. This intensity and cerebellar configuration warrants future investigation in larger samples and over repeated sessions.

scholarly journals Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Cerebellum Enhances Sadness Recognition in Parkinson’s Disease Patients: a Pilot Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabiana Ruggiero ◽  
Michelangelo Dini ◽  
Francesca Cortese ◽  
Maurizio Vergari ◽  
Martina Nigro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Cerebellar Tdcs

Abstract Emotional processing impairments, resulting in a difficulty to decode emotions from faces especially for negative emotions, are characteristic non-motor features of Parkinson’s disease (PD). There is limited evidence about the specific contribution of the cerebellum to the recognition of emotional contents in facial expressions even though patients with cerebellar dysfunction often lose this ability. In this study, we aimed to evaluate whether the recognition of facial expressions can be modulated by cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in PD patients. Nine PD patients were enrolled and received anodal and sham tDCS (2 mA, 20 min), for 5 consecutive days, in two separate cycles at intervals of at least 1 month. The facial emotion recognition task was administered at baseline (T0) and after cerebellar tDCS on day 5 (T1). Our preliminary study showed that anodal cerebellar tDCS significantly enhanced emotional recognition in response to sad facial expressions by about 16%, but left recognition of anger, happiness, and neutral facial expressions unchanged. Despite the small sample size, our preliminary results show that anodal tDCS applied for five consecutive days over the cerebellum modulates the way PD patients recognize specific facial expressions, thus suggesting that the cerebellum plays a crucial role in recognition of negative emotions and corroborating previous knowledge on the link between social cognition and the cerebellum.

scholarly journals The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on gait in patients with Parkinson’s disease: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fateme Pol ◽  
Mohammad Ali Salehinejad ◽  
Hamzeh Baharlouei ◽  
Michael A. Nitsche
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Cortical Excitability ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Gait Rehabilitation ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation

Abstract Background Gait problems are an important symptom in Parkinson’s disease (PD), a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory intervention that can modulate cortical excitability of the gait-related regions. Despite an increasing number of gait-related tDCS studies in PD, the efficacy of this technique for improving gait has not been systematically investigated yet. Here, we aimed to systematically explore the effects of tDCS on gait in PD, based on available experimental studies. Methods Using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approach, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and PEDro databases were searched for randomized clinical trials assessing the effect of tDCS on gait in patients with PD. Results Eighteen studies were included in this systematic review. Overall, tDCS targeting the motor cortex and supplementary motor area bilaterally seems to be promising for gait rehabilitation in PD. Studies of tDCS targeting the dorosolateral prefrontal cortex or cerebellum showed more heterogeneous results. More studies are needed to systematically compare the efficacy of different tDCS protocols, including protocols applying tDCS alone and/or in combination with conventional gait rehabilitation treatment in PD. Conclusions tDCS is a promising intervention approach to improving gait in PD. Anodal tDCS over the motor areas has shown a positive effect on gait, but stimulation of other areas is less promising. However, the heterogeneities of methods and results have made it difficult to draw firm conclusions. Therefore, systematic explorations of tDCS protocols are required to optimize the efficacy.

Noninvasive cortical stimulation with transcranial direct current stimulation in Parkinson's disease

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 1693-1702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe Fregni ◽  
Paulo S. Boggio ◽  
Marcelo C. Santos ◽  
Moises Lima ◽  
Adriana L. Vieira ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Cortical Stimulation ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation

scholarly journals Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana M. A. Suarez-García ◽  
Johan S. Grisales-Cárdenas ◽  
Máximo Zimerman ◽  
Juan F. Cardona
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Cognitive Improvement

Cognitive deficits are increasingly being recognized as a common trait in Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to exert positive effects as an adjunctive therapy on motor and non-motor symptoms in PD. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to provide an overview of reported evidence on the efficacy of tDCS interventions in the treatment of cognitive impairments in PD. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine articles that were published in the past 10 years and that study the effects of tDCS on cognitive deficits in PD patients. The PubMed, Scopus and Scielo databases were searched. Eight tDCS studies involving 168 participants were included for the analysis. Our meta-analysis results showed that anodal tDCS (atDCS) had various levels or no evidence of effectiveness. In the pre-post stimulation analysis, a strong effect was reported for executive functions (pre-post: g = 1.51, Z = 2.41, p = 0.016); non-significant effects were reported for visuospatial skills (pre-post: g = 0.27, Z = 0.69, p = 0.490); attention (pre-post: g = 0.02, Z = 0.08, p = 0.934), memory (pre-post: g = 0.01, Z = 0.03, p = 0.972) and language (pre-post: g = 0.07, Z = 0.21, p = 0.832). However, in the pre-follow-up stimulation analysis, the duration of the effect was not clear. This study highlights the potential effectiveness of atDCS to improve cognitive performance in PD patients but failed to establish a cause-effect relationship between tDCS intervention and cognitive improvement in PD. Future directions and recommendations for methodological improvements are outlined.

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