Repetitive Electric Stimulation Elicits Enduring Improvement of Sensorimotor Performance in Seniors

Figure 1

(a) Time course of the performance in the two-point discrimination (2pd) test. Two-point discrimination thresholds of all fingers of the dominant hand (d1=thumb; d5=little finger) averaged across subjects of the target group as obtained before (pre), during (post-w2–post-w4) and after the rES (rec-w1–rec-w2). There was a significant decrease in thresholds from pre session to post-w4 (Spearman correlation $r\ge -0.404,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}}P\le .033$), followed by a recovery of thresholds from post-w4 to rec-w2 $(r\ge 0.581,\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.17em}}P\le .001).$ Solid line gives the linear regression for average thresholds of d1–d5 from pre session to post-w4 and dashed line gives the linear regression from post-w4 to rec-w2. (b) Same as (a) for the subjects of the control group, who received sham stimulation instead of rES.

(a)

(b)