Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Sham-Controlled Pilot Study

Haifa Akremi,Raphaël Hamel,Anne Dumas,Chantal Camden,Hélène Corriveau,Jean-Francois Lepage

doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05202-6

Abstract

Evidence-based therapeutic options for children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are scarce. This work explored the effects of cerebellar anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) on three 48 h-apart motor sequence learning and upper limb coordination sessions in children with DCD. The results revealed that, as compared to a Sham intervention (n = 10), cerebellar atDCS (n = 10) did not meaningfully improve execution speed but tended to reduce the number of execution errors during motor sequence learning. However, cerebellar atDCS did neither meaningfully influence offline learning nor upper limb coordination, suggesting that atDCS’ effects are circumscribed to its application duration. These results suggest that cerebellar atDCS could have beneficial effects as a complementary therapeutic tool for children with DCD.

Highlights

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition affecting 5–6% of school-age children characterized by motor learning and coordination difficulties independent of other medical or intellectual disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
When taking into account the group difference present at S1 of the first session, results indicate that the two groups improved. These results suggest that active anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) did not conclusively improve RTs during Global serial reaction time task (SRTT) learning as compared to sham atDCS
The results revealed that the Active atDCS group tended to perform fewer errors than the Sham atDCS group during Global Online Learning, suggesting that cerebellar atDCS tended to improve accuracy during sequence learning

Summary

Introduction

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition affecting 5–6% of school-age children characterized by motor learning and coordination difficulties independent of other medical or intellectual disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The most common forms of intervention are task-oriented approaches, in which children practice real-world tasks, learn to elaborate motor plans, and identify and correct their errors These approaches combining practice with cognitive strategies are widely used, but a recent meta-analysis of 15 studies offers mitigated support for this type of intervention, as the only two randomized controlled trials conducted so far failed to show the benefits of task-based interventions on motor performance (Miyahara et al, 2020).

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