{"doi":"10.1093/gerona/glaf039","title":"Modulating Brain Activity to Improve Goal-directed Physical Activity in Older Adults: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Insufficient physical activity in older adults remains a global health issue. Several interrelated factors contributing to inactivity are linked to the prefrontal cortex. We conducted a pilot study to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and effects of combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and behavior counseling to improve physical activity in older adults. METHODS: Inactive older adults living in subsidized housing participated in this randomized controlled trial. Baseline physical activity (daily steps) was measured with a Fitbit for 2 weeks. Participants then received an 8-week intervention, including 10 daily sessions of tDCS or Sham stimulation during the first 2 weeks, along with 4 biweekly behavior sessions. Functional outcomes were assessed at baseline, poststimulation, and after the entire intervention. Step counts were measured throughout the intervention and a 12-week retention period. RESULTS: Twenty-eight participants completed the study. Compliance was 97%, 93%, and 92% for brain stimulation, behavior sessions, and follow-up assessments, respectively. Fitbit adherence was 96% and 71% during the intervention and retention periods. The tDCS arm, compared to Sham, exhibited greater increase in average daily steps (p .001). Participants increased 1 179 (+ 22%) and 550 (+ 15%) steps/day from baseline in the tDCS and Sham arms, respectively. Motivation (p .03) and self-reported walking performance (p .02) were also improved in the tDCS arm compared to Sham. CONCLUSIONS: Combining tDCS and personalized behavior counseling to improve physical activity was feasible, acceptable, and appeared to be effective in a cohort of inactive older adults living within subsidized housing. Larger and more definitive studies are warranted.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series A","year":2025,"id":543495,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9561,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1433525,"name":"Levi Ask","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":751107,"name":"Melike Kahya","orcid":"0000-0002-9289-5168","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":109415,"name":"Thomas G. Travison","orcid":"0000-0002-1030-7175","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291344,"name":"Lewis A. Lipsitz","orcid":"0000-0003-2344-1274","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322319,"name":"Brad Manor","orcid":"0000-0002-0776-237X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":711597,"name":"On‐Yee Lo","orcid":"0000-0002-7964-7717","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":53,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:04.088079Z","pmid":"40117342","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}