Fig 1.
Flow diagram of the progress through the phases (Enrolment, Allocation, Follow-up, and Analysis) of the randomized clinical trial of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and sham/control groups.
Fig 2.
Schematic illustration of electrode montage.
Stimulation of primary motor cortex (M1), primary sensory cortex (S1), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the anode electrode was positioned on C3 (A), C′3 (B), and F3 (C) consecutively. The reference electrode was placed over the contralateral supraorbital area in all conditions.
Table 1.
ANOVA results for the effects of a-tDCS on the MEP and SEP sizes and the level of STh, PTh, and PpTh.
Fig 3.
The effects of a-tDCS over different stimulation sites on MEP and SEP sizes.
The peak-to-peak amplitude of MEPs (A), and the peak-to-peak amplitude of N20-P25 of SEPs (B) are illustrated following a-tDCS of primary motor cortex (M1), primary sensory cortex (S1), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and sham a-tDCS over time. Filled symbols indicate significant deviation of the post transcranial stimulation MEP and SEP amplitudes relative to the baseline; the brackets show significant differences between different testing conditions. Data are reported as mean ± SEM.
Table 2.
The effects of different experimental conditions on the size of MEPs/SEPs and the level of STh, PTh, PpTh.
Fig 4.
The effects of a-tDCS over different stimulation sites on sensory and pain threshold.
Sensory threshold (STh) (A), pain threshold (PTh) (B), and pressure pain threshold (PpTh) (C) changes are illustrated following a-tDCS of primary motor cortex (M1), primary sensory cortex (S1), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and sham a-tDCS over time. Filled symbols indicate significant deviation of the post transcranial stimulation STh, PTh, PpTh relative to the baseline; the brackets show significant differences between different testing conditions. Data are reported as mean±SEM.
Table 3.
Numeric sensation score by participants during experimental conditions.