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Modulation of event-related desynchronization during motor imagery with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke

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Abstract

Electroencephalogram-based brain–computer interface (BCI) has been developed as a new neurorehabilitative tool for patients with severe hemiparesis. However, its application has been limited because of difficulty detecting stable brain signals from the affected hemisphere. It has been reported that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can modulate event-related desynchronization (ERD) in healthy persons. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that anodal tDCS could modulate ERD in patients with severe hemiparetic stroke. The participants were six patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke (mean age, 56.8 ± 9.5 years; mean time from the onset, 70.0 ± 19.6 months; Fugl-Meyer Assessment upper extremity motor score, 30.8 ± 16.5). We applied anodal tDCS (10 min, 1 mA) and sham stimulation over the affected primary motor cortex in a random order. ERD of the mu rhythm (mu ERD) with motor imagery of extension of the affected finger was assessed before and after anodal tDCS and sham stimulation. Mu ERD of the affected hemisphere increased significantly after anodal tDCS, whereas it did not change after sham stimulation. Our results show that anodal tDCS can increase mu ERD in patients with hemiparetic stroke, indicating that anodal tDCS could be used as a conditioning tool for BCI in stroke patients.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by the Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences (SRPBS) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (23500619) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Yuko Kasashima, Toshiyuki Fujiwara, Tetsuya Tsuji, Kimitaka Hase, Junichi Ushiyama & Meigen Liu

  2. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-8522, Japan

    Yayoi Matsushika & Junichi Ushiyama

  3. Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-8522, Japan

    Junichi Ushiba

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  1. Yuko Kasashima
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  2. Toshiyuki Fujiwara
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  3. Yayoi Matsushika
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  4. Tetsuya Tsuji
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  5. Kimitaka Hase
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  6. Junichi Ushiyama
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  7. Junichi Ushiba
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  8. Meigen Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Toshiyuki Fujiwara.

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Yuko Kasashima and Yayoi Matsushika contributed equally to the study.

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Kasashima, Y., Fujiwara, T., Matsushika, Y. et al. Modulation of event-related desynchronization during motor imagery with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in patients with chronic hemiparetic stroke. Exp Brain Res 221, 263–268 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3166-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3166-9

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