Anodal Contralesional tDCS Enhances CST Excitability Bilaterally in an Adolescent with Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy: A Brief Report

ABSTRACT

Hemiparetic cerebral palsy (HCP), weakness on one side of the body typically caused by perinatal stroke, is characterized by lifelong motor impairments related to alterations in the corticospinal tract (CST). CST reorganization could be a useful biomarker to guide applications of neuromodulatory interventions, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation therapies. We evaluated an adolescent with HCP and CST reorganization who demonstrated persistent heightened CST excitability in both upper limbs following anodal contralesional tDCS. The results support further investigation of targeted tDCS as an adjuvant therapy to traditional neurorehabilitation for upper limb function.

KEYWORDS:

• Brain Excitability
• Hemiparesis
• Motor Evoked Potential
• Perinatal Stroke
• Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the participant and family who contributed to this work. We would also like to thank Tanjila Nawshin, MBBS, Sunday Francis, PhD, and Jesse Kowalski, PT, DPT for help with data collection, and Crystal Jiang, Anthony Rikberg, and Keri Rogan for their help with data analysis. This study was supported by the following sources: National Center for Neuromodulation for Rehabilitation (NC NM4R) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (P2CHD086844 and HD078484-01A1), the University of Minnesota Foundation and University of Minnesota Medical School, the University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (P41 EB027061, P30 NS076408, 1S10OD017974-01), and a Promotion of Doctoral Studies – Level I award from the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2023.2193626.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [HD078484-01A1]; Foundation for Physical Therapy [Promotion of Doctoral Studies – Level I award]; National Center for Neuromodulation for Rehabilitation (NC NM4R) University of Minnesota Medical School University of Minnesota Center for Magnetic Resonance Research [1S10OD017974-01]; University of Minnesota Foundation.