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Neuroscience & Neurology
November 14, 2008

Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Hand Motor Skills

By RD, MD | 2 Comments | Share | Print | Email | Tweet | Like | 1+

Since its discovery many years ago, harnessing the power of electricity has been an ongoing endeavor. Benjamin Franklin’s eighteenth century experiments with electricity ushered in the evolution of the modern battery. In the middle of the last century, electricity was introduced as a remedy for difficult psychiatric disorders. “Shock treatment,” as it was known then, was used to treat many psychiatric diseases by inducing seizures. Now called electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), its mechanism of action is still unknown and its use is under strict guidelines set forth by the American Psychiatric Association. ECT is now reserved for severe psychiatric conditions when other treatments are deemed inadequate.

Fast forward to the 21st century, electricity is now being explored for its potential to improve neurological function. A recent study at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and Harvard Medical School suggests that electrical stimulation of the brain may improve dexterity. In this study, 16 right-handed volunteers were fitted with scalp electrodes and weak noninvasive direct currents were transmitted through their skulls to neurons in the motor cortex. Prior to, and after each stimulation, the participants were asked to perform finger-sequencing tasks on a standard keyboard with the non-dominant hand.

HandThe results were amazing. With electrical stimulation of the motor cortex, significant improvements in motor function in the non-dominant hand were seen. Dual stimulation of the right and left motor cortex regions, resulted in improvement of scores by almost 25%. Stimulating only one motor region showed a smaller increase (16%).

The mechanism of action, like ECT, is not is not clear. However, it is believed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) increases neuron excitability and may provide an environment supportive for motor skills recovery. Although the physiology is unknown, the implications and possible applications of this procedure is profound. Stroke victims, and people suffering from other conditions where motor function is lost or reduced may be able to acquire new skills or recover some lost motor function.

Reference

Bradley W Vines, Carlo Cerruti, Gottfried Schlaug (2008). Dual-hemisphere tDCS facilitates greater improvements for healthy subjects’ non-dominant hand compared to uni-hemisphere stimulation. BMC Neuroscience, 9 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1471-2202-9-103

RD, MD

Dr. RD is a medical doctor with experience in clinical research. An author and co-author of publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, her passion is educating patients, and she feels this is one of the most effective ways for disease prevention. She enjoys keeping abreast of the latest studies and events around the world that directly or indirectly impacts the medical field.

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2 Responses

  1. jeastha says:
    November 24, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    Researchers found that applying transcranial direct current stimulation, a weak electrical stimulation to the scalp, to both motor skills regions in the brain helped right handed volunteers improve their scores by 24 percent on a test that required them to key numbers using the fingers of the left hand.
    —————–
    Jeastha

    Reply
  2. Peter lekkakos says:
    May 21, 2011 at 5:36 am

    My mother had a anyursm burst about 15 months ago. Probably the worst hemmorage you can get. However days and months have gone by and she is getting more mobile slowly. Her left side is were is it’s defected, her left arm is slowly coming back she can do all movemets but open her hand. She can make a slight fist! Any suggestions, please email me, would like to have her arm more mobile!!

    Reply

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