Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

It's All in Your Head: Reinforcing the Placebo Response With tDCS

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.brs.2014.04.002

ISSN

1935-861X

Autores

Heidi M. Schambra, Marom Bikson, Tor D. Wager, Marcos F. DosSantos, Alexandre F. DaSilva,

Tópico(s)

Psychological Treatments and Assessments

Resumo

The mechanisms of action of tDCS for behavioral modification are not yet fully understood. However, one common observation is that its behavioral effects are most pronounced and long-lasting when tDCS is paired with endogenous, training-induced brain activity [ [1] Reis J. Fritsch B. Modulation of motor performance and motor learning by transcranial direct current stimulation. Curr Opin Neurol. 2011 Dec; 24 (PubMed PMID: 21968548): 590-596 Crossref PubMed Scopus (187) Google Scholar ]. In humans, training produces modality-specific neural network activation and activity-dependent learning. A commonly-held notion is that tDCS encourages plasticity by exogenous priming and reinforcement of neural networks that are actively engaged in learning, although the neurophysiological mechanisms may eventually prove to be more complex [ [2] de Berker A.O. Bikson M. Bestmann S. Predicting the behavioral impact of transcranial direct current stimulation: issues and limitations. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013; 7 (PubMed PMID: 24109445. Pubmed Central PMCID: 3790257): 613 Crossref PubMed Scopus (86) Google Scholar ]. Given that electrical fields induced by conventional tDCS montages are likely widespread and heterogenous, specificity of tDCS action is thought to result from concurrent activity in neural networks, i.e. through "functional targeting" rather than only anatomic localization [ [3] Bikson M. Rahman A. Origins of specificity during tDCS: anatomical, activity-selective, and input-bias mechanisms. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013; 7 (PubMed PMID: 24155708. Pubmed Central PMCID: 3800813): 688 Crossref PubMed Scopus (212) Google Scholar ].

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