Abstract
During the past decade, it became clear that the electric field elicited by non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are substantially influenced by variations in individual head and brain anatomy. In addition to structural variations in the healthy, several psychiatric disorders are characterized by anatomical alterations that are likely to further constrain the intracerebral effects of NIBS. Here, we present high-resolution realistic head models derived from structural magnetic resonance imaging data of 19 healthy adults and 19 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD). By using a freely available software package for modelling the electric fields induced by different NIBS protocols, we show that our head models are well-suited for assessing inter-individual and between-group variability in the magnitude and focality of tDCS-induced electric fields for two protocols targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Highlights
Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been used to investigate the relationship between activity in different cortical regions and cognitive processes[1,2]
Based on the reviewers’ comments, we highlighted some additional limitations about the utility of the head models, we added ‘electric’ and changed ‘effects’ to ‘electric fields’ in the title of the manuscript and elaborated a little more on the group differences in transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)-induced electric fields between major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy subjects
We present 38 head models created from magnetic resonance (MR) images of 19 healthy participants and 19 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD)
Summary
Based on the reviewers’ comments, we highlighted some additional limitations about the utility of the head models, we added ‘electric’ and changed ‘effects’ to ‘electric fields’ in the title of the manuscript and elaborated a little more on the group differences in tDCS-induced electric fields between MDD and healthy subjects. See referee reports and is extended to the full head and neck region by fusing it with an average of an additional 26 brains. This head model represents an unbiased population average and should be a better representation of the individual participants than any randomly picked reference individual. Given that the NY Head was created using healthy individuals, possible systematic differences between patient groups may not be noticed
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