Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2010 Nov 1;5(11):e13766. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013766.
Non-invasive electrical stimulation of the human cortex by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been instrumental in a number of important discoveries in the field of human cortical function and has become a well-established method for evaluating brain function in healthy human participants. Recently, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has been introduced to directly modulate the ongoing rhythmic brain activity by the application of oscillatory currents on the human scalp. Until now the efficiency of tACS in modulating rhythmic brain activity has been indicated only by inference from perceptual and behavioural consequences of electrical stimulation. No direct electrophysiological evidence of tACS has been reported. We delivered tACS over the occipital cortex of 10 healthy participants to entrain the neuronal oscillatory activity in their individual alpha frequency range and compared results with those from a separate group of participants receiving sham stimulation. The tACS but not the sham stimulation elevated the endogenous alpha power in parieto-central electrodes of the electroencephalogram. Additionally, in a network of spiking neurons, we simulated how tACS can be affected even after the end of stimulation. The results show that spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) selectively modulates synapses depending on the resonance frequencies of the neural circuits that they belong to. Thus, tACS influences STDP which in turn results in aftereffects upon neural activity.The present findings are the first direct electrophysiological evidence of an interaction of tACS and ongoing oscillatory activity in the human cortex. The data demonstrate the ability of tACS to specifically modulate oscillatory brain activity and show its potential both at fostering knowledge on the functional significance of brain oscillations and for therapeutic application.
经颅直流电刺激(tDCS)通过非侵入性地刺激人类大脑皮层,在人类大脑皮层功能领域的许多重要发现中发挥了重要作用,并且已成为评估健康人类参与者大脑功能的一种成熟方法。最近,经颅交流电刺激(tACS)已被引入,通过在人类头皮上施加振荡电流,直接调节正在进行的节律性大脑活动。到目前为止,tACS 调节节律性大脑活动的效率仅通过电刺激的感知和行为后果推断出来。尚未报道 tACS 的直接电生理证据。我们在 10 名健康参与者的枕叶皮层上施加 tACS,使他们的个体阿尔法频率范围内的神经元振荡活动同步,并将结果与接受假刺激的另一组参与者的结果进行比较。tACS 而不是假刺激提高了脑电图中顶-中央电极的内源性阿尔法功率。此外,在一个尖峰神经元网络中,我们模拟了即使在刺激结束后,tACS 如何受到影响。结果表明,依赖于神经元回路的共振频率的尖峰时间依赖可塑性(STDP)选择性地调节突触。因此,tACS 影响 STDP,进而导致神经活动的后效。本研究结果是 tACS 与人类大脑皮层中正在进行的振荡活动相互作用的第一个直接电生理证据。这些数据表明 tACS 能够特异性地调节振荡性大脑活动,并展示了它在促进大脑振荡功能意义的知识和治疗应用方面的潜力。