경두개직류자극(tDCS)이 노인의 사지간 협응과 피질척수로의 흥분과 억제 조절에 미치는 영향 = The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on inter-limb coordination and cortical excitation/inhibitionu in older adults

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on interlimb coordination and corticospinal excitability and inhibition in older adults.
Methods: Fifteen healthy older males aged 65 years and above were randomly assigned to three groups: a tDCS group, a sham group, and a control group (n = 5 per group). Neurophysiological measures included resting motor evoked potential (rMEP) amplitude and silent period (SP) duration. All participants performed interlimb coordination tasks under ipsilateral and contralateral conditions, including in-phase and anti-phase patterns. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to assess changes across groups and time.
Results: The tDCS group showed an increasing trend in rMEP amplitude from pre- to post-test, with the largest increases observed in the ipsilateral in-phase (IPS-ISO) and contralateral in-phase (CNT-ISO) conditions. In contrast, the sham and control groups demonstrated minimal changes or decreasing trends. Regarding SP duration, the tDCS group exhibited the greatest increase in the ipsilateral anti-phase (IPS-NISO) condition, which involved higher task difficulty, and showed relatively greater increases across other conditions compared to the sham and control groups.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that tDCS enhances corticospinal excitability and modulates inhibitory control associated with interlimb coordination in older adults. Therefore, tDCS may serve as an effective neurophysiological intervention to mitigate age-related declines in motor coordination and improve functional motor performance.