Quantitative reassessment of safety limits of tDCS for two animal studies

How to consider animal data in tDCS safety standards

“…We thank Chhatbar and colleagues for the editorial commentary [1] on the original paper “Safety parameter considerations of anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in rats” [2]. We would like to respond to their itemized concerns:

1) We agree that both electrode current density and stimulation duration are commonly used factors for measuring tDCS, but they are among many others that influence the safety of tDCS.

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Toward comprehensive tDCS safety standards

“…We thank Chhatbar and colleagues for the editorial commentary (Chhatbar et al, 2017) on the original paper “Safety parameter considerations of anodal transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in rats” (Jackson et al, 2017). Chhatbar et al argue that charge density at the electrode is a more “comprehensive” measure than electrode current density because electrode charge density factors in both current density and the duration of stimulation.…”

Transcranial burst electrical stimulation contributes to neuromodulatory effects in the rat motor cortex

“…For tDCS, a constant anodal or cathodal direct current of 0.3 mA, with a charge density of 5.1 C/cm 2 and a current density of 4.2 mA/cm 2 , was delivered to healthy rats for 20 min. The current density of these tDCS protocols was reported to induce no damage to brain tissues ( Bikson et al, 2016 ; Chhatbar et al, 2017 ). The sham group received a fixed current amplitude of 0 mA.…”