Antal Andrea, Kincses Tamás Z, Nitsche Michael A, Paulus Walter
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Georg-August University of Göttingen, Robert Koch Strasse 40, 37070 Göttingen, Germany.
Exp Brain Res. 2003 Jun;150(3):375-8. doi: 10.1007/s00221-003-1459-8. Epub 2003 Apr 16.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can modulate the excitability of the human motor cortex, as revealed by the amplitude of the motor-evoked potentials (MEP). The aim of our study has been to produce localized changes of cerebral excitability of the visual cortex in the intact human by weak anodal and cathodal stimulation. For quantification of current-induced excitability changes, we measured phosphene threshold (PT) using short trains of 5-Hz transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses in nine healthy subjects before, immediately after, 10 min, and 20 min after the end of tDCS. PTs are suggested as representative values of visual cortex excitability changes. Reduced PT was detected immediately and 10 min after the end of anodal stimulation, while cathodal stimulation resulted in an opposite effect. Our results show that tDCS elicits a transient, reversible excitability alteration of the visual cortex, thus representing a promising tool for neuroplasticity research.
经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）可调节人类运动皮层的兴奋性，这一点通过运动诱发电位（MEP）的幅度得以揭示。我们研究的目的是通过弱阳极和阴极刺激在完整人体中产生视觉皮层脑兴奋性的局部变化。为了量化电流诱导的兴奋性变化，我们在9名健康受试者中，于经颅直流电刺激结束前、结束后即刻、结束后10分钟和20分钟，使用5赫兹经颅磁刺激（TMS）脉冲短串测量了光幻视阈值（PT）。PT被认为是视觉皮层兴奋性变化的代表性值。在阳极刺激结束后即刻和10分钟时检测到PT降低，而阴极刺激则产生相反的效果。我们的结果表明，经颅直流电刺激可引发视觉皮层短暂、可逆的兴奋性改变，因此是神经可塑性研究的一种有前景的工具。
