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• Transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) and robotic therapy (RT) had no additional effects on motor function improvement in stroke patients.
• The metaplasticity, Hebbian plasticity, and ceiling effects must be taken into account when combining tDCS and RT as a neurorehabilitation approach.
• When applying two treatment strategies concurrently, hemostatic metaplasticity can reduce the effect of the latter strategy to maintain the neural network activity within a physiologic range.

Stroke is one of the major health problems in the world and one of the most debilitating neurological diseases in adults. Stroke survivors suffer from persistent motor, cognitive, and somatosensory complications. Long-term physical dysfunction and limitations in activities of daily living direct rehabilitation systems to improve patients’ motor performance. Transcranial direct stimulation (tDCS) and robotic therapy (RT) are two neurorehabilitation methods for improving the function of the upper limbs in stroke patients. Research results have shown that robotic therapy and direct transcranial stimulation each alone have beneficial effects on improving patients’ performance. In recent years, to make rehabilitation treatment more effective, many studies have investigated the effects of the simultaneous use of these two methods. Summarizing the results of the studies showed that the simultaneous use of these two methods does not result in a greater effect.