tDCS and local scalp cooling do not change corticomotor and intracortical excitability in healthy humans

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Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2024-12

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Mcode

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Language

en

Pages

9

Series

Clinical Neurophysiology, Volume 168, pp. 1-9

Abstract

Objective: Scalp cooling might increase the long-term potentiation (LTP)-like effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) by reducing the threshold for after-effects according to metaplasticity and increasing electrical current density reaching the cortical neurons. We aimed to investigate whether priming scalp cooling potentiates the tDCS after-effect on motor cortex excitability. Methods: This study had a randomized, parallel-arms, sham-controlled, double-blinded design with an adequately powered sample of 105 healthy subjects. Corticomotor and intracortical excitability were assessed with motor evoked potentials (MEP) from transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI) and intracortical facilitation (ICF) paradigms. Subjects were randomly allocated into six intervention groups, including anodal and cathodal tDCS (1-mA/20-min), scalp cooling, and sham. MEPs were recorded before, immediately, and 15 min after the interventions. Results: We did not observe changes in MEP amplitude from single-pulse TMS, SICI, and ICF with any intervention protocol. Conclusion: Anodal and cathodal tDCS did not have an LTP-like neuromodulatory effect on corticospinal and did not provide detectable GABAergic and glutamatergic neurotransmission changes, which were not influenced by priming scalp cooling. Significance: We provide strong evidence that tDCS (1-mA/20-min) does not alter corticomotor and intracortical excitability with or without priming scalp cooling.

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Publisher Copyright: © 2024 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology | openaire: EC/H2020/810377/EU//ConnectToBrain

Keywords

Gating, Homeostatic metaplasticity, Motor evoked potential, Neuromodulation, Scalp cooling, tDCS, TMS

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Citation

Souza, V H, Castro, K V F D, de Melo-Carneiro, P, de Oliveira Gomes, I, Camatti, J R, Oliveira, I A V F D, Sá, K N, Baptista, A F, Lucena, R & Zugaib, J 2024, ' tDCS and local scalp cooling do not change corticomotor and intracortical excitability in healthy humans ', Clinical Neurophysiology, vol. 168, pp. 1-9 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2024.09.023