Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that can modulate cortical activity. Nonetheless, information regarding its functional specificity and the extent by which visual performance can be modulated is still lacking. Here, we used vision as model to address if it differentially affects different cell groups in the stimulated area. We applied tDCS to the occiput and performed a series of visual tests in a sham-controlled repeated-measures design. Achromatic contrast sensitivity was assessed psychophysically during tDCS, with tasks designed to target specific spatial frequency (SF) channels, inferred ON, OFF channels and inferred magnocellular and parvocellular pathways of the visual system. Sweep visual evoked potential (sVEP) for contrast sensitivity and Vernier acuity was recorded before and after tDCS. Anodal tDCS significantly increased thresholds for luminance decrements (OFF) only for the inferred magnocellular thresholds. Although tDCS had no significant effects on Vernier or contrast sVEP thresholds, it modulated suprathreshold amplitudes for both tasks. Cathodal tDCS increased sVEP amplitudes at a low SF, decreased it at a medium, and had no effect at a high SF. Cathodal tDCS increased sVEP phase lags for low and decreased it for high SF (maximum change corresponding to change in apparent latency >6 ms). Cathodal and anodal stimulation decreased amplitudes of sVEP Vernier responses. Exclusive tDCS effects on magnocellular thresholds agree with reports of pathway-specific tDCS effects. The dependence of tDCS effects on SF and contrast levels further suggests that tDCS differentially affects different cell groups in the visual cortex.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Antal A, Nitsche MA, Paulus W (2001) External modulation of visual perception in humans. Neuroreport 12:3553–3555
Antal A, Kincses TZ, Nitsche MA, Bartfai O, Paulus W (2004) Excitability changes induced in the human primary visual cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation: direct electrophysiological evidence. IOVS 45:702–707
Bikson M, Rahman A (2013) Origins of specificity during tDCS: anatomical, activity-selective, and input-bias mechanisms. Front Hum Neurosci 7:1–5
Brunoni AR et al (2012) Clinical research with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): challenges and future directions. Brain Stimul 5(3):175–195
Brunoni AR, Valiengo L, Baccaro A, Zanão TA, de Oliveira JF, Goulart A, Boggio PS, Lotufo PA, Benseñor IM, Fregni F (2013) The sertraline vs electrical current therapy for treating depression clinical study: results from a factorial, randomized, controlled trial. JAMA Psychiatry 6:1–9
Callaway E (2005) Structure and function of parallel pathways in the primate early visual system. J Physiol 566:13–19
Costa TL, Nagy BV, Barboni MT, Boggio PS, Ventura DF (2012) Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates human color discrimination in a pathway-specific manner. Front Psychiatry 3:1–10
De Valois KK (1977) Spatial frequency adaptation can enhance contrast sensitivity Vision Res. 17:1057–1065
Fritsch B, Reis J, Martinowich K, Schambra HM, Ji Y, Cohen LG, Lu B (2010) Direct current stimulation promotes BDNF-dependent synaptic plasticity: potential implications for motor learning. Neuron 66(2):198–204
Gandiga PC, Hummel FC, Cohen LG (2006) Transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS): a tool for double-blind sham-controlled clinical studies in brain stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 117(4):845–850
García-Pérez MA (1998) Forced-choice staircases with fixed step sizes: asymptotic and small-sample properties. Vis Res 38(12):1861–1881
Hamer RD, Carvalho FA, Ventura DF (2013) Effect of contrast and gaps on sweep VEP measurement of human cortical vernier responses. Psychol Neurosci 6:199–212
Hou C, Good WV, Norcia AM (2007) Validation study of VEP vernier acuity in normal-vision and amblyopic adults. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 48(9):4070–4078
Hou C, Norcia AM, Madan A, Tith S, Agarwal R, Good WV (2011) Visual cortical function in very low birth weight infants without retinal or cerebral pathology. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52(12):9091–9098
Iuculano T, Cohen Kadosh RC (2013) The mental cost of cognitive enhancement. J Neurosci 33:4482–4486
Kabakov AY, Muller PA, Pascual-Leone A, Jensen FE, Rotenberg A (2012) Contribution of axonal orientation to pathway-dependent modulation of excitatory transmission by direct current stimulation in isolated rat hippocampus. J Neurophysiol 107:1881–1889
Kar K, Krekelberg B (2014) Transcranial alternating current stimulation attenuates visual motion adaptation. J Neurosci 34(21):7334–7340
Kraft A, Roehmel J, Olma M, Schmidt S, Irlbacher K, Brandt S (2010) Transcranial direct current stimulation affects visual perception measured by threshold perimetry. Exp Brain Res 207:283–290
Kuo MF, Nitsche MA (2012) Effects of transcranial electrical stimulation on cognition. Clin EEG Neurosci 43(3):192–199
Lapenta OM, Minati L, Fregni F, Boggio PS (2013) Je pense donc je fais: transcranial direct current stimulation modulates brain oscillations associated with motor imagery and movement observation. Front Hum Neurosci 7:246
Lennie P, Movshon JA (2005) Coding of color and form in the geniculostriate visual pathway (invited review). J Opt Soc Am A 22(10):2013–2033
Mata ML, Ringach DL (2005) Spatial overlap on ON and OFF subregions and its relations to response modulation ratio in macaque primary visual cortex. J Neurophysiol 93:919–928
Mirabella G, Kjaer PK, Norcia AM, Good WV, Madan A (2006) Visual development in very low birth weight infants. Pediatr Res 60(4):435–439
Miranda PC, Lomarev M, Hallett M (2006) Modeling the current distribution during transcranial direct current stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 117:1623–1629
Norcia AM, Wesemann W, Manny RE (1999) Electrophysiological correlates of vernier and relative motion mechanisms in human visual cortex. Vis Neurosci 16:1123–1131
Plow EB, Obretenova SN, Fregni F, Pascual-Leone A, Merabet LB (2012) Comparison of visual field training for hemianopia with active versus sham transcranial direct cortical stimulation. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 26:616–626
Pokorny J, Smith VC (1997) Psychophysical signatures associated with magnocellular and parvocellular pathway contrast gain. J Opt Soc Am A 14(9):2477–2487
Priebe JN, Ferster D (2012) Mechanisms of neuronal computation in mammalian visual cortex. Neuron 75:194–208
Ranieri F, Podda MV, Riccardi E, Frisullo G, Dileone M, Profice P, Grassi C (2012) Modulation of LTP at rat hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses by direct current stimulation. J Neurophysiol 107(7):1868–1880
Sincich LC, Horton JC (2005) The circuitry of V1 and V2: integration of color, form, and motion. Ann Rev Neurosci 28:303–326
Spiegel D, Byblow W, Hess RF, Thompson B (2013) Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation transiently improves contrast sensitivity and normalizes visual cortex activation in individuals with amblyopia. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 27:760–769
Stagg CJ, Nitsche MA (2011) Physiological basis of transcranial direct current stimulation. Neurocientist 17:37–53
Sun H, Swanson WH, Arvidson B, Dul MW (2008) Assessment of contrast gain signature in inferred magnocellular and parvocellular pathways in patients with glaucoma. Vis Res 48:2633–2641
Tang Y, Norcia AM (1995) An adaptive filter for steady-state evoked responses. Electroencephalogr Clin Neuro 96:268–277
Victor JD, Mast J (1991) A new statistic for steady-state evoked potentials. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 78(5):378–388
Wagner S, Rampersad SM, Aydin Ü, Vorwerk J, Oostendorp TF, Neuling T, Wolters CH (2014) Investigation of tDCS volume conduction effects in a highly realistic head model. J Neural Eng 11(1):016002
Westheimer G (2007) The on-off dichotomy in visual processing: from receptors to perception. Prog Retinal Eye Res 26:636–648
Wright JM, Krekelberg B (2014) Transcranial direct current stimulation over posterior parietal cortex modulates visuospatial localization. J Vis 14(9):5. doi:10.1167/14.9.5
Zaghi S, Acar M, Hultgren B, Boggio PS, Fregni F (2010) Noninvasive brain stimulation with low-intensity electrical currents: putative mechanisms of action for direct and alternating current. Neuroscientist 16:285–307
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Marcio Bandeira for his expert assistance in programming the pedestal test. TLC has a FAPESP grant 2011/10794-9, BVN is supported by FAPESP 2009/54292-7 and CNPq 162576/2013-7, MTSB has a FAPESP grant 2007/55125-1, PSB and DFV are CNPq research fellows. Financial support was given by FAPESP Thematic Project 2008/58731-2 to DFV.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Costa, T.L., Hamer, R.D., Nagy, B.V. et al. Transcranial direct current stimulation can selectively affect different processing channels in human visual cortex. Exp Brain Res 233, 1213–1223 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4199-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-015-4199-7