title: Polarity independent effects of cerebellar tDCS on short term ankle visuomotor learning.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), an emerging technique of noninvasive brain stimulation, has shown to produce beneficial neural effects in consequence with improvements in motor behavior. There are not many studies examining the use of tDCS for lower limb motor control and learning. Most studies using tDCS for facilitating lower limb motor coordination have applied tDCS to the lower limb motor cortex (M1). As the cerebellum is also critically involved in movement control, it is important to dissociate the effect of tDCS on the cerebellum and M1 with respect to lower limb motor control before we begin the application of tDCS as a neuromodulatory tool.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of cerebellar vs. motor cortical tDCS on short term ankle visuomotor learning in healthy individuals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight healthy individuals practiced a skilled ankle motor tracking task while receiving either facilitatory anodal tDCS to cerebellum, inhibitory cathodal tDCS to cerebellum, facilitatory anodal tDCS to M1, inhibitory cathodal tDCS to M1 or sham stimulation. Pre- and post-measures of changes in cortical excitability of the tibialis anterior muscle and measures of tracking accuracy were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anodal cerebellar, cathodal cerebellar, and anodal M1 stimulation improved target-tracking accuracy of the ankle. This was not dependent on the observed changes in motor cortical excitability of the tibialis anterior muscle.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Polarity independent effects of tDCS on cerebellum were observed. The present study shows that modulation effects of tDCS can occur because of changes in the cerebellum, a structure implicated in several forms of motor learning, providing an additional way in which tDCS can be used to improve motor coordination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1919 W. Taylor St., MC 898, Chicago, IL 60612, United States.
authors.forename: Bhakti
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Tai Tri
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Sangeetha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Madhavan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000842:Ankle / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ankle; Cerebellum; Motor cortex; TMS; tDCS