Université de Fribourg

Preconditioning cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates the neuroplastic effect of subsequent anodal transcranial direct current stimulation applied during cycling in young adults

Pourmajidian, Maryam ; Lauber, Benedikt ; Sidhu, Simranjit K

In: Neuroscience Letters, 2020, vol. 714, p. 134597

The study aimed to examine the effect of a pre-conditioning cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (ctDCS) before subsequent anodal-tDCS (atDCS) was applied during low workload cycling exercise on the corticospinal responses in young healthy individuals. Eleven young subjects participated in two sessions receiving either conditioning ctDCS or sham stimulation, followed by atDCS...

Université de Fribourg

Mental imagery and colour cues can prevent interference between motor tasks

Lauber, Benedikt ; Kurz, Alexander ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: Neuropsychologia, 2019, vol. 124, p. 202–207

Motor interference can be observed when two motor tasks are learnt in subsequent order. The aim of the current study was to test two approaches potentially mitigating interference effects. The first approach used contextual colour cues requiring only little cognitive attention thus being assumed to be primarily implicit while the second, mental practice/rehearsal that demands much more active...

Université de Fribourg

Task-dependent activation of distinct fast and slow(er) motor pathways during motor imagery

Keller, Martin ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Lauber, Benedikt

In: Brain Stimulation, 2018, p. -

Background: Motor imagery and actual movements share overlapping activation of brain areas but little is known about task-specific activation of distinct motor pathways during mental simulation of movements. For real contractions, it was demonstrated that the slow(er) motor pathways are activated differently in ballistic compared to tonic contractions but it is unknown if this also holds true...

Université de Fribourg

Surround inhibition can instantly be modulated by changing the attentional focus

Kuhn, Yves-Alain ; Keller, Martin ; Lauber, Benedikt ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: Scientific Reports, 2018, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 1085

To further investigate the mechanism of surround inhibition (SI) and to determine whether adopting different attentional strategies might have an impact on the modulation of SI, the effects of adopting an external (EF) or internal focus of attention (IF) on SI and motor performance were investigated. While performing an index flexion with either an EF or IF, transcranial magnetic stimulation...

Université de Fribourg

The effects of a single bout of exercise on motor memory interference in the trained and untrained hemisphere

Lauber, Benedikt ; Franke, Steffen ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Gollhofer, Albert

In: Neuroscience, 2017, vol. 347, p. 57–64

Increasing evidence suggests that cardiovascular exercise has positive effects on motor memory consolidation. In this study, we investigated whether a single session of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) mitigates the effects of practicing an interfering motor task. Furthermore, learning and interference effects were assessed in the actively trained and untrained limb as it is known that...

Université de Fribourg

Cross-limb interference during motor learning

Lauber, Benedikt ; Lundbye-Jensen, Jesper ; Keller, Martin ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Taube, Wolfgang ; Leukel, Christian

In: PLoS ONE, 2013, vol. 8, no. 12, p. e81038

It is well known that following skill learning, improvements in motor performance may transfer to the untrained contralateral limb. It is also well known that retention of a newly learned task A can be degraded when learning a competing task B that takes place directly after learning A. Here we investigate if this interference effect can also be observed in the limb contralateral to the trained...

Université de Fribourg

Specific interpretation of augmented feedback changes motor performance and cortical processing

Lauber, Benedikt ; Keller, Martin ; Leukel, Christian ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: Experimental Brain Research, 2013, p. -

It is well established that the presence of external feedback, also termed augmented feedback, can be used to improve performance of a motor task. The present study aimed to elucidate whether differential interpretation of the external feedback signal influences the time to task failure of a sustained submaximal contraction and modulates motor cortical activity. In Experiment 1, subjects had to...

Université de Fribourg

Time to task failure and motor cortical activity depend on the type of feedback in visuomotor tasks

Lauber, Benedikt ; Leukel, Christian ; Gollhofer, Albert ; Taube, Wolfgang

In: PLoS ONE, 2012, vol. 7, no. 3, p. e32433

The present study aimed to elucidate whether the type of feedback influences the performance and the motor cortical activity when executing identical visuomotor tasks. For this purpose, time to task failure was measured during position- and force-controlled muscular contractions. Subjects received either visual feedback about the force produced by pressing a force transducer or about the actual...