Dr. Felipe Fregni is the director of the Laboratory of Neuromodulation and Center of Clinical Research Training. He is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School of Neurology and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and an active clinical researcher and educator. In this episode, Dr. Fregni talks about his research into the use and benefits of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).
http://smartdrugsmarts.com/dr-felipe-fregni-transcranial-direct-current-stimulation/ Download: mp3
Known as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the process involves attaching electrodes to the skull and targeting specific areas of the brain with calculated jolts of electricity.
“The brain is an electrical organ, so it makes sense to try to manipulate what’s going on in the brain with electricity,” explains neuroscientist Dr. Michael Weisend.
Thync recently announced $13 million in venture capital from investors such as Khosla Ventures to bring the first products to market.
Marom Bikson, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York, recently used a prototype of Thync’s device in a 100-person study funded by the company that focused on its calming effects. Bikson says the study showed “with a high degree of confidence” that the device has an effect, although the results varied. “For some people—not everyone—the effect is really profound,” he says. “Within minutes, they’re feeling significantly different in a way that is as powerful as anything else I could imagine short of a narcotic.”
The device uses a form of transcranial direct current stimulation TDCS, something that’s been tested in various forms for years but has yet to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat a specific disease.
In Thync’s device, a barely perceptible electrical current is applied to the skin just behind the ear for the Red Bull effect, and on the temple and back of the neck for the relaxing effect.
via Tap Your Smartphone, Zap Your Head, and Relax | MIT Technology Review.
Methods
In two separate but closely related sham-controlled experiments, two groups of healthy subjects underwent anodal tDCS (2mA) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) for 20 minutes. In Experiment 1, subjects (n=11) trained on a letter 3Back task during stimulation. In Experiment 2 subjects (n=11) trained on a letter 1Back task, which resembled the 3Back task but featured a lower working memory load. In both experiments, before and after stimulation, subjects completed an adjusting Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (A-PASAT). Both the experimenter and subjects were blind to stimulation conditions in both experiments.
Results
Subjects were both faster and more accurate on the A-PASAT task after receiving real tDCS paired with 3Back training (Experiment1) compared to sham+3Back, real+1Back, and sham+1Back conditions.
Conclusions
The cognitive demands of a task performed during tDCS can influence the effects of tDCS on post-stimulation performance. This finding has direct relevance to the use of tDCS as an investigative tool in cognitive neuroscience and as a therapy.
Even though measuring from cranial landmarks is one way to find these points, I always question measuring on the head, or body, because of the size differences between people. Hence to make it easier to locate the points, below are numerous pictures.
Left Anode Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)
The left is obviously the left side of the head, and the anode is the more positive of the two leads (green wire on the Cognitive kit); current goes from electronics to anode through the head to cathode back to the electronics. For the position of the DLPFC, check out the cranium below:And on me pointing and with a sponge electrode(see there is an advantage to having little hair, better tDCS montage location and better electrode connection).
