Background
hypoxia, Hypoxia, sports-related
HYPOXIA, HYPOXIA
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is the most common non-invasive neuromodulatory technique that has been growingly investigated in sports-related studies over the last two decades [It has been demonstrated that the target electrode location plays a vital role in the effect of tDCS on exercise performance, with the involvement of other factors such as electrode size, stimulation intensity and duration, performance measurement, and participants’ characteristics [Hypoxia is characterized as a demanding condition in which oxygen (OTaken together, the hypoxia- and tDCS-related mechanisms raise the question as to whether the stimulation of M1 or DLPFC areas could counteract the detrimental effects of hypoxia on various aspects of endurance performance and cognitive function. Interestingly, the literature enables us to make a connection between the processes underlying the reduction in aerobic performance due to hypoxia and the ones underlying the beneficial effect of tDCS on endurance performance. For instance, while hypoxia has been shown to impose cognitive and perceptual burden [To the best of our knowledge, no study has investigated the effects of tDCS on exercise performance and cognitive function under hypoxia so far. Hence, to fill this gap, this study aimed at evaluating the effect of anodal tDCS over M1 or left DLPFC on endurance performance measured as time to exhaustion (TTE), neuromuscular control measured as electromyographic activity (EMG), physiological responses measured as heart rate (HR), blood O