2. Thanks up front
Maarten Frens
Jos Van Der Geest
Rick Van Der Vliet
Claire Verhage
Suman Das
Peter Holland
Eric Avila
3. Direct current stimulation
• What is it?
– Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?
• What does it do?
– How does it effect neurons?
– How does it effect behavior?
• How does it work?
6. So what is tDCS?
• Trans cranial direct current stimulation
• Passing electric current through the brain
– For clinical effects
• Depression, chronic pain, rehabilitation
– Or sub-clinical effects
• Cognitive improvements
• Affective improvements
7. The torpedo fish
• Scribonius Largus
– 43-48 AD
– On the scalp for headache
• Galen, 131-410 AD
• Ibn-Sidah, 11th century
– Electric catfish
• Studied by Walsh, 1773
– Begins electrophysiology
– Followed up by
• Galvani
• Volta
Priori Clin Neurophysiol 2003
www.fragmentsoftime.com/45FishPlate.htm
8. Rebirth of tDCS
• Lippold and Redfearn,
1964
– Effect on mood
– Low current, long
stimulation
• Reproducible?
• Long term effects?
Costain BJP 1964
9. tDCS affects cortical excitability
• Measure effect of 7-13 min of tDCS on
– EMG evoked by TMS over MI
• Much larger currents
Nitsche Neurology 2001
13. But we do for saccade adaptation
• In 5/7 subjects
14. And in a categorization task
Prefrontal cortex
Cerebellum
• Deciding if a square is “category 1” or
“category 2”
15. Summary: tDCS in humans
• Huge media presence
• Storied history
• Potential clinical relevance
– Effect on learning
– Effect after stimulation is over
• Variable results
– Especially across laboratories
16. Animal models of tDCS
• Polarization of cortex
affects excitability
• Reversibly
• Long after polarization
ends
• Dependent on protein
synthesis
Bindman J Physiol 1964
17. Effect of DCS depends on BDNF
• DCS effect is NMDA
dependent
• Cre/floxed
– BDNF gene excision
• TrkB
– BDNF cognate receptor
• TrkBF616A knockin
– TrkB inactivated by 1NMPP1
26. Summary of results
• Humans
– Like everybody:
• Our tDCS results are variable
• Animals
– Polarity dependent increase in VOR adaptation
rate
• Reversed in mutants
– Polarity dependent increase in firing rate
• Reversed in mutants
27. What is tDCS
• Effects on neural excitability
– Reproducible
– Polarity dependent
– Predictable
• Effects on behavior
– Occasionally strong
– Variable across laboratories
– In need of better control
• Clinical effects
– Under furious investigation
28. How does it work?
• Drive cascades that depend on membrane
voltage
• Still need to explain:
– Increased intensity reverses effect
– Reversed effect for LTP-deficient mice
– High variability of behavioral results