Hamajima H, Gomez-Tames J, Uehara S, Otaka Y, Tanaka S, Hirata A. Computation of group-level electric field in lower limb motor area for different tDCS montages.
Clin Neurophysiol 2023;
150:69-78. [PMID:
37023635 DOI:
10.1016/j.clinph.2023.03.009]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 03/09/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) injects a weak electric current into the brain via electrodes attached to the scalp to modulate cortical excitability. tDCS is used to rebalance brain activity between affected and unaffected hemispheres in rehabilitation. However, a systematic quantitative evaluation of tDCS montage is not reported for the lower limbs. In this study, we computationally investigated the generated electric field intensity, polarity, and co-stimulation of cortical areas for lower limb targeting using high-resolution head models.
METHODS
Volume conductor models have thus been employed to estimate the electric field in the brain. A total of 18 head models of healthy subjects were used to calculate the group-level electric fields generated from four montages of tDCS for modulation of lower limbs.
RESULTS
C1-C2 montage delivered higher electric field intensities while reaching deeper regions of the lower-limb motor area. It produced a uniform polarization on the same hemisphere target with comparable intensities between hemispheres but with higher variability.
CONCLUSIONS
Proper montage selection allows reaching deeper regions of the lower-limb motor area with uniform polarization.
SIGNIFICANCE
First systematic computational study providing support to tDCS experimental studies using montages for the lower limb while considering polarity factor for balancing brain activity.
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