Effects of Transcranial Pulse Stimulation of the Primary Motor Cortex on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Crossover Pilot Study.

AIMS: We aimed to investigate the behavioral aftereffects of a novel noninvasive brain stimulation technique-transcranial pulse stimulation (TPS)-applied over the right motor cortex (rM1) in healthy adults.

METHODS

Thirty-four healthy adults underwent a randomized, subject- and analyst- blind, crossover trial, receiving active TPS over the rM1 or control TPS over the vertex in two sessions 24 h apart. Motor performance was assessed using the Nine-Hole Peg Test (NHPT) and the Simple Reaction Time Task (SRTT) before, immediately after, and every 10 min for 40 min after each session. A linear mixed model and post hoc analyses were applied to evaluate the effects.

RESULTS

No significant interaction effect (stimulation condition × time) was found. The left-hand NHPT performance significantly improved from 10 min post-TPS onward in both conditions (ps ≤ 0.002).

CONCLUSION

A single session of rM1-TPS does not yield significant improvements in motor dexterity compared to vertex-TPS. Future well-powered studies with a sham control condition and multiple stimulation sessions are needed to investigate the aftereffects using a combination of neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered in ClinicalTrial.gov in April 2024 (NCT06312930).