INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Psychiatric Disorders: from Resistance to Response Team, F-69000, France; University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, F-69000, France; Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, Lyon, F-69000, France.
neuroCare Group GmbH, Munich, Germany; Research Institute Brainclinics, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Brain Stimul. 2019 May-Jun;12(3):668-673. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.977. Epub 2019 Jan 2.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique increasingly used to modulate neural activity in the living brain. In order to establish the neurophysiological, cognitive or clinical effects of tDCS, most studies compare the effects of active tDCS to those observed with a sham tDCS intervention. In most cases, sham tDCS consists in delivering an active stimulation for a few seconds to mimic the sensations observed with active tDCS and keep participants blind to the intervention. However, to date, sham-controlled tDCS studies yield inconsistent results, which might arise in part from sham inconsistencies. Indeed, a multiplicity of sham stimulation protocols is being used in the tDCS research field and might have different biological effects beyond the intended transient sensations. Here, we seek to enlighten the scientific community to this possible confounding factor in order to increase reproducibility of neurophysiological, cognitive and clinical tDCS studies.
经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）是一种越来越多地用于调节活体大脑神经活动的非侵入性脑刺激技术。为了确定 tDCS 的神经生理学、认知或临床效果，大多数研究将主动 tDCS 的效果与假刺激干预观察到的效果进行比较。在大多数情况下，假刺激 tDCS 包括进行几秒钟的主动刺激，以模拟主动 tDCS 观察到的感觉，并使参与者对干预保持盲目。然而，迄今为止，假对照 tDCS 研究产生了不一致的结果，这可能部分源于假刺激的不一致。事实上，在 tDCS 研究领域中，有多种假刺激方案被使用，并且可能除了预期的短暂感觉之外，还具有不同的生物学效应。在这里，我们试图让科学界了解这个可能的混杂因素，以提高神经生理学、认知和临床 tDCS 研究的可重复性。
