Cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) changes measured with simultaneous tDCS-MRI in healthy adults
Marco Muccio, Lillian Walton Masters, Giuseppina Pilloni, Peidong He, Lauren Krupp, Abhishek Datta, Marom Bikson, Leigh Charvet, Yulin Ge
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe and well-tolerated noninvasive technique used for cortical excitability modulation. tDCS has been extensively investigated for its clinical applications; however further understanding of its underlying in-vivo physiological mechanisms remains a fundamental focus of current research. OBJECTIVES: ) using simultaneous MRI in healthy adults to provide a reference frame for its neurobiological mechanisms. METHODS: at three time points: pre-, during- and post- 15 minutes of 2.0 mA tDCS on left anodal dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. RESULTS: significantly increased by 5.9 % during-tDCS (175.68 ± 30.78 µmol/100g/min) compared to pre-tDCS (165.84 ± 25.32 µmol/100g/min; p = 0.0015), maintaining increased levels in post-tDCS (176.86 ± 28.58 µmol/100g/min). CONCLUSIONS: changes due to tDCS in healthy adults that may be incorporated in clinical studies to evaluate its therapeutic potential.