Department of Physiotherapy, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Discipline of Physiotherapy, Federation University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Psychophysiology. 2024 Mar;61(3):e14521. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14521. Epub 2024 Jan 10.
Transcranial pulsed current stimulation (tPCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that has aroused considerable attention in recent years. This review aims to provide an overview of the existing literature on tPCS, examine the scope and nature of previous research, investigate its underlying mechanisms, and identify gaps in the literature. Searching online databases resulted in 36 published tPCS studies from inception until May 2023. These studies were categorized into three groups: human studies on healthy individuals, human studies on clinical conditions, and animal studies. The findings suggest that tPCS has the potential to modulate brain excitability by entraining neural oscillations and utilizing stochastic resonance. However, the underlying mechanisms of tPCS are not yet fully understood and require further investigation. Furthermore, the included studies indicate that tPCS may have therapeutic potential for neurological diseases. However, before tPCS can be applied in clinical settings, a better understanding of its mechanisms is crucial. Hence, the tPCS studies were categorized into four types of research: basic, strategic, applied, and experimental research, to identify the nature of the literature and gaps. Analysis of these categories revealed that tPCS, with its diverse parameters, effects, and mechanisms, presents a wide range of research opportunities for future investigations.
经颅脉冲电流刺激（tPCS）是一种非侵入性的脑刺激技术，近年来引起了相当大的关注。本综述旨在提供关于 tPCS 的现有文献概述，检查先前研究的范围和性质，研究其潜在机制，并确定文献中的空白。通过在线数据库搜索，从开始到 2023 年 5 月，共检索到 36 项已发表的 tPCS 研究。这些研究分为三组：健康个体的人体研究、临床病症的人体研究和动物研究。研究结果表明，tPCS 通过使神经振荡同步和利用随机共振，具有调节脑兴奋性的潜力。然而，tPCS 的潜在机制尚不完全清楚，需要进一步研究。此外，纳入的研究表明，tPCS 可能对神经疾病具有治疗潜力。然而，在 tPCS 可以应用于临床环境之前，深入了解其机制至关重要。因此，将 tPCS 研究分为基础研究、策略研究、应用研究和实验研究四类，以确定文献的性质和空白。对这些类别的分析表明，tPCS 具有多样化的参数、效应和机制，为未来的研究提供了广泛的研究机会。
