title: Tagging motor memories with transcranial direct current stimulation allows later artificially-controlled retrieval.
abstract: We demonstrate that human motor memories can be artificially tagged and later retrieved by noninvasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Participants learned to adapt reaching movements to two conflicting dynamical environments that were each associated with a different tDCS polarity (anodal or cathodal tDCS) on the sensorimotor cortex. That is, we sought to determine whether divergent background activity levels within the sensorimotor cortex (anodal: higher activity; cathodal: lower activity) give rise to distinct motor memories. After a training session, application of each tDCS polarity automatically resulted in the retrieval of the motor memory corresponding to that polarity. These results reveal that artificial modulation of neural activity in the sensorimotor cortex through tDCS can act as a context for the formation and recollection of motor memories.
authors.affiliation: Division of Physical and Health Education, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Daichi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1338-8337
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nozaki
authors.affiliation: The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.|Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7428-3344
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yokoi
authors.affiliation: Research Institute, Kochi University of Technology, Kami City, Japan.
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5673-1553
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.affiliation: Center for Information and Neural Networks, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Osaka University, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8571-8289
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirashima
authors.affiliation: Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics, and Applied Mathematics, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.|Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.|Department of Kinesiology, Movement Control and Neuroplasticity Research Group, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4603-7939
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Orban de Xivry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement; D066191:Sensorimotor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: context dependent motor learning; human; internal model; motor memory; neuroscience; noninvasive brain stimulation