Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]
Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used to modulate human brain and behavioural function in both research and clinical interventions. The combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with tDCS enables researchers...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wellcome
2023-02-01
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| Series: | Wellcome Open Research |
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| Online Access: | https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-143/v2 |
| _version_ | 1827977693718642688 |
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| author | Katerina Pappa Davide Nardo Oliver Josephs Alphonso Reid Jenny T. Crinion Martina F. Callaghan Ali Aghaeifar Clive Negus Megan Creasey |
| author_facet | Katerina Pappa Davide Nardo Oliver Josephs Alphonso Reid Jenny T. Crinion Martina F. Callaghan Ali Aghaeifar Clive Negus Megan Creasey |
| author_sort | Katerina Pappa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used to modulate human brain and behavioural function in both research and clinical interventions. The combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with tDCS enables researchers to directly test causal contributions of stimulated brain regions, answering questions about the physiology and neural mechanisms underlying behaviour. Despite the promise of the technique, advances have been hampered by technical challenges and methodological variability between studies, confounding comparability/replicability. Methods: Here tDCS-fMRI at 3T was developed for a series of experiments investigating language recovery after stroke. To validate the method, one healthy volunteer completed an fMRI paradigm with three conditions: No-tDCS, Sham-tDCS, Anodal-tDCS. MR data were analysed with region-of-interest (ROI) analyses of the electrodes and reference site. Results: Quality assessment indicated no visible signal dropouts or distortions in the brain introduced by the tDCS equipment. After modelling scanner drift, motion-related variance, and temporal autocorrelation, we found that functional MR sensitivity was not degraded or adversely affected by the tDCS set-up and stimulation protocol across conditions in grey matter and in the three ROIs. Discussion: Key safety factors and risk mitigation strategies that must be taken into consideration when integrating tDCS into an fMRI environment are outlined. To obtain reliable results, we provide practical solutions to technical challenges and complications of the method. It is hoped that sharing these data and Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) will promote methodological replication in future studies, enhancing the quality of tDCS-fMRI application, and improve the reliability of scientific results in this field. Conclusions: Our method and data provide a technically safe, reliable tDCS-fMRI procedure to obtain high quality MR data. The detailed framework of the SOP systematically reports the technical and procedural elements of our tDCS-fMRI approach, which can be adopted and prove useful in future studies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:10:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f454aa3f7688407d8b883de6c75cdc27 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2398-502X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T21:10:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
| publisher | Wellcome |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Wellcome Open Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-f454aa3f7688407d8b883de6c75cdc272023-03-29T01:00:00ZengWellcomeWellcome Open Research2398-502X2023-02-01621018Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]Katerina Pappa0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3322-496XDavide Nardo1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8158-5738Oliver Josephs2Alphonso Reid3Jenny T. Crinion4Martina F. Callaghan5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0374-1659Ali Aghaeifar6Clive Negus7Megan Creasey8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2194-4460Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UKMRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKWellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UKIntroduction: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique used to modulate human brain and behavioural function in both research and clinical interventions. The combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with tDCS enables researchers to directly test causal contributions of stimulated brain regions, answering questions about the physiology and neural mechanisms underlying behaviour. Despite the promise of the technique, advances have been hampered by technical challenges and methodological variability between studies, confounding comparability/replicability. Methods: Here tDCS-fMRI at 3T was developed for a series of experiments investigating language recovery after stroke. To validate the method, one healthy volunteer completed an fMRI paradigm with three conditions: No-tDCS, Sham-tDCS, Anodal-tDCS. MR data were analysed with region-of-interest (ROI) analyses of the electrodes and reference site. Results: Quality assessment indicated no visible signal dropouts or distortions in the brain introduced by the tDCS equipment. After modelling scanner drift, motion-related variance, and temporal autocorrelation, we found that functional MR sensitivity was not degraded or adversely affected by the tDCS set-up and stimulation protocol across conditions in grey matter and in the three ROIs. Discussion: Key safety factors and risk mitigation strategies that must be taken into consideration when integrating tDCS into an fMRI environment are outlined. To obtain reliable results, we provide practical solutions to technical challenges and complications of the method. It is hoped that sharing these data and Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) will promote methodological replication in future studies, enhancing the quality of tDCS-fMRI application, and improve the reliability of scientific results in this field. Conclusions: Our method and data provide a technically safe, reliable tDCS-fMRI procedure to obtain high quality MR data. The detailed framework of the SOP systematically reports the technical and procedural elements of our tDCS-fMRI approach, which can be adopted and prove useful in future studies.https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-143/v2transcranial direct current stimulation transcranial electrical brain stimulation fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging standard operating procedure safety factorseng |
| spellingShingle | Katerina Pappa Davide Nardo Oliver Josephs Alphonso Reid Jenny T. Crinion Martina F. Callaghan Ali Aghaeifar Clive Negus Megan Creasey Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] Wellcome Open Research transcranial direct current stimulation transcranial electrical brain stimulation fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging standard operating procedure safety factors eng |
| title | Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_full | Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_fullStr | Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_full_unstemmed | Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_short | Transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging: a detailed validation and operational guide [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations] |
| title_sort | transcranial direct current stimulation with functional magnetic resonance imaging a detailed validation and operational guide version 2 peer review 1 approved 2 approved with reservations |
| topic | transcranial direct current stimulation transcranial electrical brain stimulation fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging standard operating procedure safety factors eng |
| url | https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/6-143/v2 |
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