Evidence of transcranial direct current stimulation-generated electric fields at subthalamic level in human brain in vivo.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising brain modulation
technique for several disease conditions. With this technique, some portion of the
current penetrates through the scalp to the cortex and modulates cortical excitability,
but a recent human cadaver study questions the amount. This insufficient intracerebral
penetration of currents may partially explain the inconsistent and mixed results in
tDCS studies to date. Experimental validation of a transcranial alternating current
stimulation-generated electric field (EF) in vivo has been performed on the cortical
(using electrocorticography, ECoG, electrodes), subcortical (using stereo electroencephalography,
SEEG, electrodes) and deeper thalamic/subthalamic levels (using DBS electrodes). However,
tDCS-generated EF measurements have never been attempted. OBJECTIVE:We aimed to demonstrate
that tDCS generates biologically relevant EF as deep as the subthalamic level in vivo.
METHODS:Patients with movement disorders who have implanted deep brain stimulation
(DBS) electrodes serve as a natural experimental model for thalamic/subthalamic recordings
of tDCS-generated EF. We measured voltage changes from DBS electrodes and body resistance
from tDCS electrodes in three subjects while applying direct current to the scalp
at 2 mA and 4 mA over two tDCS montages. RESULTS:Voltage changes at the level of deep
nuclei changed proportionally with the level of applied current and varied with different
tDCS montages. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that scalp-applied tDCS generates
biologically relevant EF. Incorporation of these experimental results may improve
finite element analysis (FEA)-based models.
Type
Journal articleSubject
ThalamusHumans
Electromagnetic Fields
Adult
Female
Male
Brain Waves
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19125Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.brs.2018.03.006Publication Info
Chhatbar, Pratik Y; Kautz, Steven A; Takacs, Istvan; Rowland, Nathan C; Revuelta,
Gonzalo J; George, Mark S; ... Feng, Wuwei (2018). Evidence of transcranial direct current stimulation-generated electric fields at subthalamic
level in human brain in vivo. Brain stimulation, 11(4). pp. 727-733. 10.1016/j.brs.2018.03.006. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19125.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Pratik Yashvant Chhatbar
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology
Neuromodulation / Neuroprosthetics / Upcoming technologies
Wuwei Feng
Professor of Neurology
Wayne Feng is the Chief of Division of Stroke & Vascular Neurology, Medical Director
of Duke Comprehensive Stroke Center, and Tenured Profess of Neurology and Biomedical
Engineering at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Feng is a board-certified vascular
neurologist as well as a physician scientist. His research portfolios include developing
imaging biomarker for post-stroke motor outcomes prediction, and use of non-invasive
brain stimulation tools, such as, transcranial direct curre
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