tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post8091528627014244575..comments2024-03-14T23:52:09.893-07:00Comments on The Neurocritic: Don't Lose Your Head Over tDCSThe Neurocritichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-61656626417437034302016-04-21T04:52:33.976-07:002016-04-21T04:52:33.976-07:00Hi there. Hopefully Buzsáki's presentation wil...Hi there. Hopefully Buzsáki's presentation will become a paper at one point, and then we can examine the experimental set-up in more detail. But for the moment - as others have already suggested - this may be primarily an issue of comparing apples and oranges. We have the different conductivites of PM and live tissues, for one thing. Another point is that few researchers - I hope - would claim for a direct effect of tES to generate spikes *in the absence of endogenous activity* - unlike TMS. Finally, there are now a great number of papers published on the distributions of current in the brain after tES (although just as many problems with what these actually mean for modulating neuronal activity...!)<br />The problem with the systematic reviews that you mention are that the field desperately needs to agree on some standardisation of how experimental set-ups are reported in the literature, as at the moment I don't see how it's really possible to compare like with like in this manner. To end, I look forward to seeing Buzsaki's setup in more detail - one thing that struck me was that the electrodes penetrating the scalp may have actually created a scenario where shunts are more likely.the argonauthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13198382693303748482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-29628994597763044152016-04-17T03:31:03.721-07:002016-04-17T03:31:03.721-07:00Dr. Metitieri - Thanks so much for your comment an...Dr. Metitieri - Thanks so much for your comment and for translating Dr. Miniussi's remarks on the post. I wasn't familiar with the modeling paper of Miranda et al. I should also reiterate that Buzsáki et al.'s findings haven't been published yet; they've only appeared at conferences thus far (including 2015 SfN). The Neurocritichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08010555869208208621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21605329.post-27957495603840207542016-04-16T10:30:07.595-07:002016-04-16T10:30:07.595-07:00"“After a small shock to the head, you can ac..."“After a small shock to the head, you can achieve happiness, a high mark in school, or the record in your preferred videogame.” I am reading this claim in the newspaper while sitting on the train going to work. I know what they are talking about; this is my field of research! Even so, I find these words persuasive, and I would like to try these shocks. The train has slowed down, a voice announces my stop, and I am back to a daily reality where small shocks have become a significant tool in basic and clinical neuroscience but certainly not to improve the performance of normal people in their everyday activities." <br />This is the nice opening paragraph of the article written by Carlo Miniussi for the Special Issue of the European Psychologist on Noninvasive Brain Stimulation (http://econtent.hogrefe.com/toc/epp/current).<br />I asked Carlo for comments on your post and I have translated his response (in Italian, with excerpts of your post here http://neuropsicolab.blogspot.it/2016/04/il-commento-di-carlo-miniussi-al-post.html): “the post is well done because it has a lot of links, but what is reported appear to me not so “new” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Miranda+PC+2006). Of course, if the findings obtained by Buzsáki are confirmed, you may think that tDCS has an effect nearly homeopathic on the brain. Certainly, these type of research is the most needed: systematic studies of animal and human models, comparable in terms of the amount of current that stimulates the brain. Luckily, they are coming out, or, well, we know they exist and we are waiting to read them, as for Buzsáki. Now we have some studies on animal models demonstrating that the electrical stimulation affects the level of the basic mechanisms of plasticity (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4764914/) .....Tiziana Metitierihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11430090407774404115noreply@blogger.com