Electrode montage-dependent intracranial variability in electric fields induced by cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation

Abstract Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an increasingly popular tool to investigate the involvement of the cerebellum in a variety of brain functions and pathologies. However, heterogeneity and small effect sizes remain a common issue. One potential cause may be interindividual va...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jana Klaus, Dennis J. L. G. Schutter
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:
R
Q
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/594a724da6f0427ba9a62d00380a24ba
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:Abstract Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an increasingly popular tool to investigate the involvement of the cerebellum in a variety of brain functions and pathologies. However, heterogeneity and small effect sizes remain a common issue. One potential cause may be interindividual variability of the electric fields induced by tDCS. Here, we compared electric field distributions and directions between two conventionally used electrode montages (i.e., one placing the return electrode over the ipsilateral buccinator muscle and one placing the return electrode [25 and 35 cm2 surface area, respectively] over the contralateral supraorbital area; Experiment 1) and six alternative montages (electrode size: 9 cm2; Experiment 2) targeting the right posterior cerebellar hemisphere at 2 mA. Interindividual and montage differences in the achieved maximum field strength, focality, and direction of current flow were evaluated in 20 head models and the effects of individual differences in scalp–cortex distance were examined. Results showed that while maximum field strength was comparable for all montages, focality was substantially improved for the alternative montages over inferior occipital positions. Our findings suggest that compared to several conventional montages extracerebellar electric fields are significantly reduced by placing smaller electrodes in closer vicinity of the targeted area.