Unfortunately, the quality of these videos is quite poor (always use a tripod, always get a direct audio feed of the lecture đ You can download an enhanced audio-only mp3 of the lecture here.
Prof. Marom Bikson of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The City College of New York lecture on March 13, 2013 at the: Symposium at the the 10th Göttingen Meeting of the German Neuroscience Society.
“Non-invasive brain stimulation: mechanisms, effects and opportunities” introduces fundamentals of tDCS mechanisms and dose including how to achieve targeting using brain stimulation.
Continue the discussion here or on the lab http://neuralengr.com/forums/ or Soterix forums http://soterixmedical.com/community/
Marom Bikson is CEO of Soterix Medical and Associate Professor at City College of New York in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Marom is a distinguished tDCS scientist and prominent in the development of HD-tDCS. Download the interviewhere (zipped mp3). (Firefox users- there is an audio player here, but it’s displaying intermittently. Trying to track down the issue. In the meantime you can download the episode or open the page in another browser).
Marom Bikson
(We got a good forty minutes of interview in before the Skype gremlins caught up with us. I had to cobble an ending together.)
Customizing technologies to match needs of particular clinical situations.
Soterix developed software designed for clinicians.
HDTargeting
HDExplore
Modeling current flow through the head.
Perhaps depression studies are closest to FDA qualification for tDCS?
(Prediction is very hard, especially about the future – Yogi Berra.)
A device (NorDoc Smartstim) that can go to 4mA is being used in a smoking cessation trial? (Trial info indicates 2mA current dose.)
FDA tDCS approval would be device-specific at first. But would open the door to ‘me too’ mechanism, FDA 510(k)
HD tDCS can have multiple cathodes and or multiple anodes. An array of 4 small anodes splitting 2mA, for example (.5 mA each electrode), can function as an anodal ‘virtual pad’. Assumes cathode somewhere else on the body).
Image By Richard McKinley USAF
Tolerability is how tolerable in terms of side effects a medication is.
A Theory of tDCS (“Gross oversimplification”) As positive current flows into the cortex it passes neurons.
Because of the nature of neurons, this positive current depolarizes somas (cell’s body), increasing excitability, thereby increasing the functionality & plasticity of that region (hypothesis⊠“We really don’t know.”). Under the cathode, somas (cells) are being hyper-polarized – excitabilty decreases.
A synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell. Pyramidal neuron
Titration, also known as titrimetry, is a common laboratory method of quantitative chemical analysis that is used to determine the unknown concentration of an identified analyte.
TES Transcranial Electric Stimulation
“transcranial electrical stimulation” Merton and Morton 1980
“Priming the network in conjunction with applying tDCS makes a lot of sense, as a way to make the tDCS to do what you want.” (Co-priming – The idea that one would initiate an activity first, and THEN add tDCS.)
Most of us are attracted to the idea of DIY tDCS because of the low entry barrier – a nine volt battery and a simple circuit (at least in theroy). But also because so much of the science literature coming out around tDCS hints at exciting possibilities for enhancing our cognitive abilities. The thought of DIY TMS, with it’s high voltages never occurred to me. I was shocked! to find these videos of DIYer Ben Krasnow on Youtube. HatTip to Marom Bikson, this came to me by way of his Twitter @MaromBikson
Ted pointed this out to me in a comment. We’ve met both Alan Snyder and Michael Weisend elsewhere on the blog. This video sums up nicely the areas they’re working in. Anyone else alarmed at the thought of there being a pressing need to fill drone pilot seats and that perhaps tDCS could cut training time in half?
Photo links to YouTube video.
Michael Weisend Mind Research Network
Obviously we don’t have access to fMRI, yet. But the method Wesiend is demonstrating in the video certainly seems the way to go: Isolate the area of the brain used in the desired skill, and then apply tDCS to facilitate learning.
This is definitely a pattern-recognition type of experiment.
fMRI Showing Medial Temporal Lobe Activity
…When you are a novice, there’s low-level activation in the medial temporal lobes. But in experts, there’s very high-level activation. And so we targeted tDCS at these areas that increase activity in order to accelerate training. (This is context of drone pilot training)
ActivaDose Device
Electrode
Electrode Harness
I need help identifying and understanding this electrode setup. Note that it’s the same electrode being used in this shot from a Scientific America article discussing the same research. If there was an electrode in the middle of the cluster, that might be the Anode and the surrounding electrodes could be Cathodes (as seems to be what is developing around HD-tDCS). But a symmetrical 5 node electrode cluster is confusing me.
Image By Richard McKinley USAF
I was trying to understand why Soterix (Marom Bikson) would be developing devices that could administer 8 channels of tDCS simultaneously. Putting the pieces of these articles, papers, and videos together, it becomes pretty clear that tDCS, used to enhance training, especially in military (DOD) contexts, could be hugely profitable.
Anodal 2.0 mA tDCS performed for 30 min over these regions in a series of single-blind, randomized studies resulted in significant improvements in learning and performance compared with 0.1 mA tDCS. This difference in performance increased to a factor of two after a one-hour delay. A dose-response effect of current strength on learning was also found.
Through the Wormhole S03E08 Part 3 of 3 ENSubs – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I13IOKfeLzw&feature=youtu.be [more]
A small portable tDCS device would be safe, effective and easy to use, according to Dr. Marom Bikson, associate professor of biomedical engineering at CCNY. âWe developed this technology and methodology in order to get the currents deep into the brain,â said Bikson. âYou can walk around with it and keep it in your desk drawer or purse. This is definitely the first technology that operates on just a 9-volt battery and can be applied at home.â
Bikson foresees tDCS units as tiny as an iPod that patients can use every day to ward off attacks. A consumer-ready portable tDCS device is still years away, since large clinical trials would be needed.
In a pilot study conducted by Bikson, repeated tDCS sessions reduced the duration and pain intensity of migraine attacks by about 37 percent. Increasing improvements were noted after four weeks of treatment and the positive effects lasted for months. A mild tingling sensation during the electrical brain stimulation treatment was the only side effect.
âThereâs something about migraine pain thatâs particularly distressing,â said Bikson. âIf itâs possible to help some people get just 30 percent better, thatâs a very meaningful improvement in quality of life.â
Bikson says tDCS seems to reverse changes in the brain caused by repeated migraine attacks, including greater sensitivity to headaches triggers. He believes a patient could use a portable TDCS system every day to ward off attacks.
The Soterix website and all that shiny new technology!
They make reference to ‘HD-tDCS‘ and diagram multi-electrode application for fine-tuning current distribution. Download their device manual (pdf).
Prof. Bikson’s lab has a YouTube page. They seem to have constructed a computer model for determining where current flows according to how electrodes are placed.
Prof. Biksonâs group uses a range of research and engineering design tools including cellular and animal studies, computer simulations, imaging, and clinical evaluation. Prof. Biksonâs research has recieved support from funding agencies including NIH (NINDS,NCI,NIGMS), The Andy Grove Foundation, The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. . Prof. Bikson is actively involved in biomedical education including outreach to underserved groups.
