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Comment
. 2017 Mar 28:6:e25812.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.25812.

Transcranial electric stimulation seen from within the brain

Affiliations
Comment

Transcranial electric stimulation seen from within the brain

Angel V Peterchev. Elife. .

Abstract

Computer models can make transcranial electric stimulation a better tool for research and therapy.

Keywords: computational current-flow model; human; intracranial recordings; neuroscience; transcranial electric stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

AVP: An inventor on patents and patent applications and recipient of research and travel support as well as patent royalties from Rogue Research; research and travel support, consulting fees, as well as equipment loan from Tal Medical; patent application support from Magstim; and equipment loans from MagVenture, all related to technology for transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Computational model of the electric field and current produced in an individual's head during transcranial electric stimulation.
(A) Electrodes (white and orange rectangles) are attached to the scalp and electric current is applied; the model of the head shown here is derived from a structural MRI scan. (B) Simulation showing the electric current per unit area (current density) in a section of the brain during transcranial stimulation: this image shows the scalp (outermost layer), skull, cerebrospinal fluid, gray matter and white matter. The highest current density values in the brain (blue) are 100-fold lower than those in the scalp (red). The high resistance of the skull means that the majority of the current is shunted in the scalp. The cerebrospinal fluid is highly conductive and this takes current away from the brain too. (C) Simulation showing the electric field on the surface of the brain. For this configuration, the electric field is strongest between the two electrodes. The model was created and visualized with the free SimNIBS software package (http://simnibs.de; Windhoff et al., 2013).

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