Study is 1st to quantify ‘brain hacking’ tDCS fields

 

Researchers have successfully visualized the field of effect of transcranial direct current stimulation using a novel magnetic resonance imaging technique, according to a new study.

Results from the study were published in the journal Nature last month.

Therapeutic procedures with tDCS are used to apply sustained changes in motor evoked potentials, and the technique has been shown to improve symptoms of neurologic and psychiatric disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson’s, depression, stroke and chronic pain.

The use of tDCS has even been shown to improve learning, modulate working memory and invoke other cognitive benefits, though there has been a lack of critical understanding of exactly which areas of the brain are affected and modulated through the therapy.

The study aimed to explore the use of a novel magnetic resonance imaging technique to detect magnetic fields induced by tDCS currents. Authors in the study found that by using a novel MRI procedure, they were able to quantify the magnetic fields induced through tDCS procedures.

Study authors said they were able to detect changes in magnetic fields as small as a nanotesla at a millimeter of spatial resolutions, and said that the method would “open a new avenue for direct in-vivo visualization of tDCS target engagement.”

“The key innovation of our technique is that it provides quantification of magnetic fields directly induced by tDCS currents as a means to visualize target engagement. This is in contrast to present in-vivo imaging approaches that use surrogate markers to record the brain’s neurovascular and neurophysiological responses to tDCS stimulation,” study authors wrote. “Once we reach the capability for reliable mapping of electromagnetic fields induced by tDCS in individual subjects with the proposed technical developments (see below), our technique may open the door to a new field of individualized, precise, noninvasive neuromodulation using tDCS.”

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