A Comparison of the Effect of the Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Vision and Motor Cortex on Learning of Basketball Free Throw Skill

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to compare the effects of the transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of vision and motor cortex on learning of basketball free throw skill. In this semi-experimental study with repeated measure research design, 45 female students novice at basketball free throw were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly assigned to three groups (each group 15 subjects): tDCS on vision cortex, tDCS on motor cortex and artificial stimulation. In pretest phase, participants had 15 basketball free throws. Intervention phase was performed in 6 consecutive days; firstly, electrical stimulation of the brain was daily performed from the motor cortex (C3 anode and Fp2 cathode), the visual cortex (Oz anode and Cz cathode) and artificial stimulation, and then participants performed 15 free basketball throws. In last session, posttest phase was carried out. One week and 21 days after the posttest phase, short-term and long-term retention phase was performed. Data were analyzed with mixed ANOVA. The results indicated that tDCS on motor cortex (F=16.908, sig=0.0001, η2 =0.547) and vision cortex (F=7.41, sig=0.001, η2=0.346) improved basketball free throw. Other results indicated that tDCS on motor cortex improved basketball free throw more than tDCS on vision cortex (p < 0.05). Overall, the results of the current study indicated that tDCS on motor cortex can be effective as a new training method in addition to physical training to improve basketball free throw skill.

Keywords

• motor cortex
• motor learning
• transcranial direct current stimulation
• vision cortex