Effect of a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with virtual reality training on functional mobility in children with cerebral palsy: A randomized, controlled, double-blind trial.

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Introduct ion: Abnormal postu ral con t rol in children wi th cereb ral pal sy(CP) exert s a negative impa ct on ac tivi ties o f daily living . The Timed Upand Go (TUG) test i s a valid , reliable test for the evaluation o f fun ctionalmobili ty in children wi th CP. Ob ject ive: The aim o f the p resen t study wa sto determine the e f fec ts o f a single ses sion o f tran scranial di rect cu rren tstimulation ( tDCS) over the p rima ry motor cortex combined wi th mobili tytraining using a vi r tual reali ty sy stem on fun ctional mobili ty in childrenwi th CP. Method: The sample wa s composed o f 12 children wi th CP aged 4to 12 yea rs , who were randomly allocated to an experimen tal g roup(vi rtual reali ty training + active tDCS) and con t rol group (vi rtual reali tytraining + pla cebo tDCS) . Evaluation s involved the TUG test per formed 20minu tes be fore the in terven tion a s well as immedia tely a fter thein terven tion. The pai red t-test wa s u sed for the in tra-g roup compa ri sonsand both the unpai red t -test and Levene‟s test were used for thein tergroup compa ri sons , wi th a p-value < 0 .05 indi cative o f s tati sti calsigni fi cance . Resu lts: The data were exp res sed a s mean and standa rddeviation. In the con trol group , the time needed to comple te the TUG wa s14.40 ± 5.79 s be fore the in terven tion 13.81 ± 5.18 s a fter the test (p =0.279). In the experimen tal g roup , the time needed to complete the TUGwen t from 15.73 ± 5.77 s be fore the test to 13.96 ± 5.48 s a f ter the test(p = 0.004). However , no s tati sti cally signi fi can t di f feren ce wa s found inthe in ter-g roup analysi s (p = 0.853). Conc lusion: The findings sugges tthat tDCS favors an increa se in gai t veloci ty in children wi th cereb ralpal sy.