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Basic Mechanisms of Transcranial Alternating Current and Random Noise Stimulation

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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Abstract

Through neuromodulation of neural activity, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) interacts with neural oscillations in a frequency- and phase-specific manner, thereby influencing human brain function. Currents are applied at the scalp with intensities up to 4 mA peak to peak (except for electroconvulsive therapy with much higher intensities), for minutes and rarely hours/day. Possible physical variations of the stimulation spectrum are indefinite, transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) representing a simple example. Animal experiments have demonstrated in what way neurons react to invasively and transcranially applied alternating currents. Such findings, supported by modelling studies, studies on human physiology and behaviour, invasive stimulation and recording from epilepsy patients helped to understand how we can entrain oscillations in the human brain. In future, the methods might increasingly be applicable in the therapy of disorders with malfunctioning brain oscillations.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, ZN 3456 awarded to AA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Andrea Antal & Walter Paulus

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Nir Grossman

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Correspondence to Andrea Antal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    André R. Brunoni

  2. Department of Psychology and Neurosciences, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany

    Michael A. Nitsche

  3. Black Dog Institute & School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Colleen K. Loo

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Antal, A., Grossman, N., Paulus, W. (2021). Basic Mechanisms of Transcranial Alternating Current and Random Noise Stimulation. In: Brunoni, A.R., Nitsche, M.A., Loo, C.K. (eds) Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Neuropsychiatric Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76136-3_2

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