Cellular Mechanisms of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Abstract

During transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), low-intensity DC current is applied across the scalp to enhance specific performance or training efficacy on a range of complex cognitive tasks; moreover tDCS has been suggested to produce minimal side-effects (undesired cognitive changes). The central premise of this proposal is that tDCS achieves task-specific modulation through a cellular mechanism where only neuronal circuits primed during tDCS (for example by training) are modulated by tDCS, while non-primed mechanisms are not modulated. The specific goal of this proposal is thus to establish a cellular substrate for DCS mediated activation-specific changes. This proposal addresses two independent, but not exclusive, cellular mechanisms: Can DCS lead to plastic changes by direct modulation of neuronal membrane excitability, dependent on action potential activity but not necessarily dependent on synaptic function (Aim 1)? How does DCS modulation of synaptic efficacy depend on ongoing synaptic activity (Aim 2)?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 14, 2016
Accession Number
AD1012265

Entities

People

  • Marom Bikson

Organizations

  • Research Foundation of The City University of New York

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Brain
  • Brain Injuries
  • Cerebral Cortex
  • Cognition
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Direct Current
  • Electrophysiological Phenomena
  • Electrophysiology
  • Information Processing
  • Membrane Potentials
  • Neural Pathways
  • Neurology
  • Neurons
  • Neurophysiology
  • Neurosciences
  • Rodents

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Electrochemical Surface Science
  • Neuroscience