BRAIN STIMULATION: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation
Volume 2, Issue 4 , Pages 241-245, October 2009

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation or transcranial direct current stimulation?

  • Alberto Priori

      Affiliations

    • Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Università degli Studi di Milano, Centro Clinico per le Neuronanotecnologie e la Neurostimolazione, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Mangiagalli e Regina Elena, Milano, Italy
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence: Prof. Alberto Priori, Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Università di Milano, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano, Via Francesco Sforza 35, 20122 Milano, Italy.
    • ,
  • Mark Hallett

      Affiliations

    • Human Motor Control Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland
    • ,
  • John C. Rothwell

      Affiliations

    • Sobell Department, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

Received 7 January 2009; received in revised form 17 February 2009; accepted 24 February 2009. published online 06 April 2009.

In recent years two techniques have become available to stimulate the human brain noninvasively through the scalp: repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Prolonged application of either method (eg, several hundred TMS pulses [rTMS] or several minutes of tDCS) leads to changes in excitability of the cortex that outlast the period of stimulation. Because of this, besides the implications for experimental neuroscientists, there is increasing interest in the potential for applying either method as a therapy in neurology, psychiatry, rehabilitation, and pain. Given that both techniques lead to the same final result, this article discusses in theory several issues that can help an investigator to decide whether rTMS or tDCS would be more suitable for the scope of the planned work.

Keywords: rTMS, tDCS, brain stimulation, neuromodulation

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 JCR was funded by the Medical Research Council, UK.

 MH is supported by the Intramural Program of NINDS, NIH.

PII: S1935-861X(09)00012-6

doi:10.1016/j.brs.2009.02.004

BRAIN STIMULATION: Basic, Translational, and Clinical Research in Neuromodulation
Volume 2, Issue 4 , Pages 241-245, October 2009

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