Effect of concurrent transcranial direct current stimulation on instrumented timed up and go task performance in people with Parkinson’s disease: A double-blind and cross-over study

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) delivered to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can improve mobility among people with Parkinson's disease (PD). Previous studies suggest that delivering tDCS during task performance might be beneficial. However, only a few studies explored the effect of combining tDCS with task. We investigated the effect of stimulating the DLPFC using anodal tDCS while performing a timed up and go (TUG) test and its sustained effects. In this sham-controlled, cross-over, and double-blind study, twenty participants with PD (age = 67.8 ± 8.3 years and 6 females) completed two sessions (anodal or sham tDCS), conducted in the randomized and counterbalanced manner, with at least a 1-week gap. Stimulation involved transferring 2 mA current through the DLPFC for 30 min. Single-trial of TUG test was performed under single- and dual-task conditions before, during, immediately after, 15 and 30 min after stimulation ceased. We estimated durations of completing different components of TUG. Phoneme verbal fluency task was given as the cognitive distractor during the dual-tasking. An improvement was observed in cognitive performance due to the tDCS condition (d = 0.7, p < 0.01) over time. However, we found no effect of tDCS condition on iTUG related outcomes under single- or dual-task conditions. In conclusion, DLPFC stimulation combined with task improved cognitive performance only, and the improvement was sustained after tDCS ceased. Future studies may investigate stimulating multiple brain regions to improve motor and cognitive performance.