The modulation of the cerebellar excitability with cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation to improve bimanual coordination in the elderly

Abstract

Healthy aging influences the execution of bimanual coordination which constitutes a critical marker of functional independence across the lifespan. Bimanual coordination poses an important element in many daily activities and is an example where the two hemispheres have to collaborate. The cerebellum is linked to factors strongly involved in bimanual coordination and is an important if not the most important predictor of bimanual coordination performance in the elderly, little is still known about the specific role of the cerebellum in bimanual coordination and in neurological aging processes. The aim of this study is to gain more knowledge about the cerebello-cerebral activations in bimanual coordination and to which functional network the clusters, which is a collection of activations, belong and to improve performance of bimanual coordination in the elderly by modulating the cerebello-cerebral network with cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (cbtDCS).