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Prefrontal delta oscillations during deep brain stimulation predict treatment success in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventral capsule/ventral striatum (VC/VS) is a promising neurotherapeutic approach for severe and refractory cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Successful VC/VS-DBS treatment alters function in frontostriatal pathways important for the etiopathogenesis of OCD [1–3]. Monitoring changes in frontostriatal functioning resulting from active DBS can reveal signatures of DBS engagement with disease-relevant pathways [1,4]. In particular, modulation of the dorsal-medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) seems to be crucial for therapeutic success: symptomatic OCD patients demonstrate hyperconnectivity between the VC/VS and dmPFC, which is normalized following successful VC/VS-DBS [1,5,6].tDCS to the left DLPFC modulates cognitive and physiological correlates of executive function in a state-dependent manner
The use of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to study anatomical and physiological dynamics and circuits supporting cognition and executive functions in particular has dramatically increased in recent years. However, its mechanisms of action remain only partially understood.A fast and general method to empirically estimate the complexity of brain responses to transcranial and intracranial stimulations
The Perturbational Complexity Index (PCI) was recently introduced to assess the capacity of thalamocortical circuits to engage in complex patterns of causal interactions. While showing high accuracy in detecting consciousness in brain-injured patients, PCI depends on elaborate experimental setups and offline processing, and has restricted applicability to other types of brain signals beyond transcranial magnetic stimulation and high-density EEG (TMS/hd-EEG) recordings.Differential effects of bifrontal tDCS on arousal and sleep duration in insomnia patients and healthy controls
Arousal and sleep represent basic domains of behavior, and alterations are of high clinical importance.Interhemispheric cortico-cortical paired associative stimulation of the prefrontal cortex jointly modulates frontal asymmetry and emotional reactivity
As advances in neuroimaging further our understanding of the brain's functional connectivity, neuropsychology has moved away from a regional approach of attributing behavior to a specific region towards a network approach, attributing behavior to interconnected regions. A prime example of this is the suggested relevance of frontal asymmetry of the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) in emotional processing. Yet, while neuroimaging defines relevant networks, it can only establish correlations and not causality.Brain (Hyper)Excitability Revealed by Optimal Electrical Stimulation of GABAergic Interneurons
Normal brain functions require input from local GABAergic interneurons onto pyramidal cells to maintain a balance between excitatory and inhibitory processes in cortical circuits [1]. This balance is of utmost importance and many neurological disorders are characterized by a disrupted function of GABAergic interneurons leading to impaired neuronal discharge and the associated symptomatology (see review in Reference [2]). This dysregulation can be either diffuse as in autism spectrum disorders [3,4], Down syndrome [5], and mood disorders [6], or more focal as in chronic pain [7] and epilepsy [8], as demonstrated in animal models for these diseases.Clinical Response to tDCS Depends on Residual Brain Metabolism and Grey Matter Integrity in Patients With Minimally Conscious State
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was recently shown to promote recovery of voluntary signs of consciousness in some patients in minimally conscious state (MCS). However, it remains unclear why clinical improvement is only observed in a subgroup of patients.The Photoparoxysmal Response Reflects Abnormal Early Visuomotor Integration in the Human Motor Cortex
Visual-paired associative stimulation (V-PAS) is a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technique able to investigate long-term potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD)-like plasticity in the primary motor cortex (M1) arising through early visuomotor integration.Slow-oscillatory Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Modulates Memory in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy by Altering Sleep Spindle Generators: A Possible Rehabilitation Tool
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is often associated with memory deficits. Given the putative role for sleep spindles memory consolidation, spindle generators skewed toward the affected lobe in TLE subjects may be a neurophysiological marker of defective memory. Slow-oscillatory transcranial direct current stimulation (sotDCS) during slow waves sleep (SWS) has previously been shown to enhance sleep-dependent memory consolidation by increasing slow-wave sleep and modulating sleep spindles.
