What Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensity is Best for Cognitive Enhancement?

Overview

Journal J Neurophysiol

Publisher American Physiological Society

Specialties Neurology
Physiology

Date 2021 Jan 6

PMID 33406005

Authors

Jason Smucny

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In a recent study published in , Ehrardt et al. (Ehrhardt SE, Filmer HL, Wards Y, Mattingley JB, Dux PE. 125: 385-397, 2021) report that moderate intensity (1 mA/25 cm) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is optimal for improving performance on a stimulus-response matching task, as opposed to a lower 0.7 mA/25 cm or higher 2 mA/25 cm dose. This result suggests that behavioral effects of tDCS do not follow a linear dose-response curve. Potential neurobiological and neurocognitive implications of these findings, as well as suggested directions for future research, are discussed.

References

Adenzato M, Manenti R, Gobbi E, Enrici I, Rusich D, Cotelli M . Aging, sex and cognitive Theory of Mind: a transcranial direct current stimulation study. Sci Rep. 2019; 9(1):18064. PMC: 6889494. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54469-4. View

Krause B, Marquez-Ruiz J, Cohen Kadosh R . The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation: a role for cortical excitation/inhibition balance?. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013; 7:602. PMC: 3781319. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00602. View

Banich M . The Stroop Effect Occurs at Multiple Points Along a Cascade of Control: Evidence From Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches. Front Psychol. 2019; 10:2164. PMC: 6797819. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02164. View

Sohal V, Rubenstein J . Excitation-inhibition balance as a framework for investigating mechanisms in neuropsychiatric disorders. Mol Psychiatry. 2019; 24(9):1248-1257. PMC: 6742424. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0426-0. View

Lopez-Alonso V, Cheeran B, Rio-Rodriguez D, Fernandez-Del-Olmo M . Inter-individual variability in response to non-invasive brain stimulation paradigms. Brain Stimul. 2014; 7(3):372-80. DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2014.02.004. View

Hoy K, Arnold S, Emonson M, Daskalakis Z, Fitzgerald P . An investigation into the effects of tDCS dose on cognitive performance over time in patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2014; 155(1-3):96-100. DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2014.03.006. View

Dedoncker J, Brunoni A, Baeken C, Vanderhasselt M . A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Over the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Healthy and Neuropsychiatric Samples: Influence of Stimulation Parameters. Brain Stimul. 2016; 9(4):501-17. DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2016.04.006. View

Chase H, Boudewyn M, Carter C, Phillips M . Transcranial direct current stimulation: a roadmap for research, from mechanism of action to clinical implementation. Mol Psychiatry. 2019; 25(2):397-407. PMC: 6981019. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-019-0499-9. View

Senkowski D, Molholm S, Gomez-Ramirez M, Foxe J . Oscillatory beta activity predicts response speed during a multisensory audiovisual reaction time task: a high-density electrical mapping study. Cereb Cortex. 2005; 16(11):1556-65. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhj091. View

10.

Russell M, Goodman T, Wang Q, Groshong B, Lyeth B . Gender Differences in Current Received during Transcranial Electrical Stimulation. Front Psychiatry. 2014; 5:104. PMC: 4133690. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2014.00104. View

11.

Salinas E, Sejnowski T . Correlated neuronal activity and the flow of neural information. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(8):539-50. PMC: 2868968. DOI: 10.1038/35086012. View

12.

Ehrhardt S, Filmer H, Wards Y, Mattingley J, Dux P . The influence of tDCS intensity on decision-making training and transfer outcomes. J Neurophysiol. 2020; 125(2):385-397. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00423.2020. View

13.

Opitz A, Paulus W, Will S, Antunes A, Thielscher A . Determinants of the electric field during transcranial direct current stimulation. Neuroimage. 2015; 109:140-50. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.01.033. View

14.

Wiethoff S, Hamada M, Rothwell J . Variability in response to transcranial direct current stimulation of the motor cortex. Brain Stimul. 2014; 7(3):468-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2014.02.003. View

15.

Dux P, Ivanoff J, Asplund C, Marois R . Isolation of a central bottleneck of information processing with time-resolved FMRI. Neuron. 2006; 52(6):1109-20. PMC: 2527865. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2006.11.009. View

16.

Krause M, Zanos T, Csorba B, Pilly P, Choe J, Phillips M . Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Facilitates Associative Learning and Alters Functional Connectivity in the Primate Brain. Curr Biol. 2017; 27(20):3086-3096.e3. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.09.020. View

17.

Dissanayaka T, Zoghi M, Farrell M, Egan G, Jaberzadeh S . Does transcranial electrical stimulation enhance corticospinal excitability of the motor cortex in healthy individuals? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Neurosci. 2017; 46(4):1968-1990. DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13640. View

18.

Opitz A, Windhoff M, Heidemann R, Turner R, Thielscher A . How the brain tissue shapes the electric field induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Neuroimage. 2011; 58(3):849-59. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.069. View

19.

Kim K, Eliassen J, Lee S, Kang E . Functional neuroanatomy of visual search with differential attentional demands: an fMRI study. Brain Res. 2012; 1475:49-61. DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2012.07.004. View

20.

Rudroff T, Workman C, Fietsam A, Kamholz J . Response Variability in Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Why Sex Matters. Front Psychiatry. 2020; 11:585. PMC: 7316984. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00585. View