The left anterior right temporal (LART) placement for electroconvulsive therapy: A computational modelling study

Abstract

Electrode placement in electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has a major impact on treatment efficacy and cognitive side effects. Left Anterior Right Temporal (LART) is a lesser utilised bilateral montage which may produce more optimal clinical outcomes relative to standard bitemporal ECT. In this study we used computational modelling to explore how stimulation effects from LART and two novel variants (LART - F3 and LART - Frontal) compared to the more common bilateral placements of bitemporal and bifrontal ECT. High resolution finite element human head models were generated from MRI scans of three subjects with Major Depressive Disorder. Differences in regional stimulation were examined through parametric tests for regions of interest and subtraction maps. Compared to bitemporal ECT, LART - Original resulted in significantly greater stimulation of the left cingulate gyrus (hypothesised to be associated with treatment efficacy), and relatively reduced stimulation of the bilateral hippocampi (potentially associated with cognitive side effects). No additional clinical benefit was suggested with the novel LART placements compared to the original LART. The original LART placement is a promising montage for further clinical investigation.

Keywords: Cognition; Computational modelling; Depression; Efficacy; Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).