A Review on Motor Imagery with Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation: Bridging Motor and Cognitive Welfare for Patient Rehabilitation

Abstract

Research has shown the effectiveness of motor imagery in patient motor rehabilitation. Transcranial electrical stimulation has also demonstrated to improve patient motor and non-motor performance. However, mixed findings from motor imagery studies that involved transcranial electrical stimulation suggest that current experimental protocols can be further improved towards a unified design for consistent and effective results. This paper aims to review, with some clinical and neuroscientific findings from literature as support, studies of motor imagery coupled with different types of transcranial electrical stimulation and their experiments onhealthy and patient subjects. This review also includes the cognitive domains of working memory, attention, and fatigue, which are important for designing consistent and effective therapy protocols. Finally, we propose a theoretical all-inclusive framework that synergizes the three cognitive domains with motor imagery and transcranial electrical stimulation for patient rehabilitation, which holds promise of benefiting patients suffering from neuromuscular and cognitive disorders.

Keywords

• motor imagery
• transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS)
• transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
• working memory
• attention
• fatigue