Trial reportJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2021
The effect of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation intensity on motor performance in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04577768 (The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensity on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensity on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Variant Target Effects on Motor Learning With M1 Anodal tDCS.Brain and behavior · 2025Trial
- Implicit Motor Learning Under Anodal or Cathodal tDCS During fMRI Induces Partially Distinct Network Responses.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Trial
- Non-invasive brain stimulation modulates GABAergic activity in neurofibromatosis 1.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Article
- The Role of the Anterior Temporal Lobe in Reading: An HD-tDCS Study.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) in human motor Optimization: Mechanisms, safety, and emerging applications.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Review
- Comparing the effect of transcranial random noise stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation over the motor cortex on motor performance in men vs. women: a randomized controlled crossover study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- A review on the reporting and assessment of adverse effects associated with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Review
- Acute Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Combined with High-Load Resistance Exercises on Repetitive Vertical Jump Performance and EEG Characteristics in Healthy Men.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Noninvasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Temporal Interference Electric Fields Enhanced Motor Performance of Mice and Its Neuroplasticity Mechanisms.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Article
- Transspinal Direct Current Electrical Stimulation Selectively Affects the Excitability of the Corticospinal System, Depending on the Intensity but Not Motor Skills.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Neural Mechanisms of Neuro-Rehabilitation Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the Front-Polar Area.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Using a Pulse Protocol to Fix the Individual Dosage of Transcranial and Transspinal Direct Current Electrical Stimulation.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The effect of action observation combined with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation on motor performance in healthy adults: A randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Sensorimotor performance after high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary somatosensory or motor cortices in men versus women.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Comparing the effects of focal and conventional tDCS on motor skill learning: A proof of principle study.Neuroscience research · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe results of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies that seek to improve motor performance for people with neurological disorders, by targeting the primary motor cortex, have been inconsistent. One possible reason, among others, for this inconsistency, is that very little is known about the optimal protocols for enhancing motor performance in healthy individuals. The best way to optimize stimulation protocols for enhancing tDCS effects on motor performance by means of current intensity modulation has not yet been determined. We aimed to determine the effect of current intensity on motor performance using-for the first time-a montage optimized for maximal focal stimulation via anodal high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) on the right primary motor cortex in healthy subjects.
methodsSixty participants randomly received 20-min HD-tDCS at 1.5, 2 mA, or sham stimulation. Participants' reaching performance with the left hand on a tablet was tested before, during, and immediately following stimulation, and retested after 24 h.
resultsIn the current montage of HD-tDCS, movement time did not differ between groups in each timepoint. However, only after HD-tDCS at 1.5 mA did movement time improve at posttest as compared to pretest. This reduction in movement time from pretest to posttest was significantly greater compared to HD-tDCS 2 mA. Following HD-tDCS at 1.5 mA and sham HD-tDCS, but not 2 mA, movement time improved at retest compared to pretest, and at posttest and retest compared to the movement time during stimulation. In HD-tDCS at 2 mA, the negligible reduction in movement time from the course of stimulation to posttest was significantly lower compared to sham HD-tDCS. Across all groups, reaction time improved in retest compared to pretest and to the reaction time during stimulation, and did not differ between groups in each timepoint.
conclusionsIt appears that 2 mA in this particular experimental setup inhibited the learning effects. These results suggest that excitatory effects induced by anodal stimulation do not hold for every stimulation intensity, information that should be taken into consideration when translating tDCS use from the realm of research into more optimal neurorehabilitation.
trial registrationClinical Trials Gov, NCT04577768. Registered 6 October 2019 -Retrospectively registered, https://register.clinicaltrials.gov/prs/app/action/SelectProtocol?sid=S000A9B3&selectaction=Edit&uid=U0005AKF&ts=8&cx=buucf0 .
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.