Article

We tested the hypothesis that combining treadmill walking with
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances the gait improvements
associated with treadmill walking in Parkinson disease.
We explored the effects
of these combined methodologies on corticospinal parameters. DESIGN: Eighteen
participants with Parkinson disease were evaluated under the following three
conditions: treadmill walking alone (treadmill), treadmill walking combined with
anodal tDCS (AtDCS+treadmill) delivered over the motor cortex, and treadmill
walking combined with sham stimulation (StDCS+treadmill). Overground walking
performance, soleus H-reflex, reciprocal Ia inhibition from the tibialis anterior
to the soleus muscle, intracortical facilitation, and short intracortical
inhibition of the tibialis anterior muscle, were measured before and after each
treadmill condition. The soleus H-reflex and walking performance on the treadmill
were also evaluated. RESULTS: All treadmill conditions improved walking
performance and modulated spinal and corticospinal parameters in a similar way.
However, AtDCS+treadmill lead to a different modulation of reciprocal Ia
inhibition in comparison with the other treadmill conditions. CONCLUSIONS: A
single session combining treadmill walking and anodal tDCS delivered over the
motor cortex resulted in a specific modulation of the reciprocal Ia inhibition
from the tibialis anterior to the soleus muscle. However, this acute effect did
not result in improvements of gait parameters associated with treadmill walking in Parkinson disease.

Langue : ANGLAIS