Impaired arm function after stroke is both frequent and a considerable burden for people with stroke and their caregivers. An emerging approach for enhancing neural plasticity after acute and chronic brain damage, thus enhancing rehabilitation outcomes in the upper limb rehabilitation after stroke, is non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), for example delivered by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) [
1]. tDCS is a potentially useful tool for facilitating neural plasticity, because it is relatively inexpensive, easy to administer and safe.
Many small trials regarding the effects of tDCS on arm motor function poststroke were undertaken in the past with partly promising but not conclusive results [
2,
3]. Based on these trials a lot of research interest increased in the last 10 to 15 years which still persists. This considerable research interest is a bit surprising first, given the fact that this type of therapy is not used across the board in clinical routine and second, the largest multicenter randomized clinical trial with appropriate methodology including 96 patients did not find clear results in favor of this type of stimulation [
4]. A recent network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials about the effectiveness of tDCS suggested only limited evidence for effectiveness of tDCS after stroke for arm rehabilitation [
3]. The optimal stimulation paradigm regarding polarisation, electrode location, amount of direct current applied and stimulation duration still has to be established in order to maximize clinical effectiveness of tDCS [
5]. Additionally, doubts emerged that the underlying rationale, the interhemispheric competition model, may be oversimplified or even incorrect [
6]. The interhemispheric competition model postulates that a stroke leads to an inhibition of the ipsilateral and to an (over-) excitation of the contralateral brain hemisphere. Hence its clinical implications are to inhibit the contralateral hemisphere and to excited ipsilateral hemisphere. Moreover, electrode positioning and the resulting direction of electric fields as well as variation in head anatomy also modulate stimulation effects [
7,
8]. Hence, further approaches may be warranted beyond the approach of neuronavigation prior to stimulation: Additional increases in effectiveness of tDCS in upper limb rehabilitation after stroke may for example be achieved by (1) applying a more focal stimulation approach like high definition tDCS (HD-tDCS), (2) involving functional imaging techniques during stimulation to identify target areas more exactly, (3) applying tDCS during EEG (EEG-tDCS), (4) focusing on an effective upper limb rehabilitation strategy as an effective base treatment after stroke. Perhaps going even beyond the application of tDCS and applying alternative stimulation techniques such as transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS) [
9] or transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS) [
10] will further increase effectiveness of upper limb rehabilitation after stroke.