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Authors & Affiliations
Annel Koomen, Janne Luppi, Cornelis Stam, Yolande Pijnenburg, Willem de Haan
Abstract
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) is the non-invasive application of a weak electrical current between electrodes placed on the head. It enables cognitive modulation in humans by affecting neuronal excitability and plasticity, although the precise working mechanisms and optimal stimulation approaches are still unknown. Simultaneous functional brain network recording using magnetoencephalography (MEG) could enhance our understanding of the neurophysiological effects of tES and facilitate closed-loop neuromodulation.A concurrent tES-MEG session will be conducted in 20 adults without a neuropsychiatric medical history. In this session, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), amplitude-modulated tACS and sham tES is applied (in counterbalanced order) at the precuneus region for 3 minutes, with 3-minutes resting-state blocks before and after each stimulation block. Preliminary results from the MEG data before, during and after tDCS indicate an initial decrease during tDCS and an increase after tDCS in theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (13-25 Hz) relative power and alpha and beta corrected amplitude envelope correlation. The MEG data from before and after tDCS suggest an overall decrease in alpha relative power after stimulation. The decrease in global spectral power after tDCS corresponds to the immediate effects induced during stimulation, although the latter with larger magnitude, which may be physiological and/or device-related. Planned analyses of the yet to be collected complete dataset with the addition of tACS application, while taking into account stimulation site and temporal changes during stimulation, will enable drawing more elaborate and reliable conclusions.