Transcranial Direct Cortex Stimulation of Motor Cortex enhances Running Endurance

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a technique of non-invasive brain stimulation that can enhance exercise performance, has been shown to increase running endurance by 15%.

10 participants received 20 minutes of either tDCS applied over the motor cortex, or a sham operated control on separate days, and then completed a constant load test, involving running at 80% of their VO2max.

Amongst a number of measurements, only time to exhaustion (TTE) yielded a significant result, with the VO2max tests involving tDCS lasting 15% longer than the sham tests.