Safety of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Neurorehabilitation

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has considerable potential as a useful method in the field of neurorehabilitation. However, the safety of tDCS for the human is primarily based on theoretical evidence related to electricity, and the safety information of applying tDCS to the human is only available from researcher's reporting. Based on tDCS studies with human and animal subjects and simulation-based studies of the safety of current stimulation in the past 20 years, this review investigated the safety of tDCS application to the human body. No severe complications have been reported in either adults or children for tDCS at an intensity of 4 mA or less, within a period of 60 minutes per day, using commonly applied 25 or 35 cm 2 electrodes. According to animal studies, the amount of electricity used for tDCS is less than 5% of the amount that permanently changes brain tissue, thereby ensuring safety to a certain extent. In order to increase the efficacy of tDCS for neurorehabilitation and to minimize even trivial complications in the human screening of exclusion criteria should be conducted with detailed observations of complications.

Electric field simulation and appropriate electrode positioning for optimized transcranial direct current stimulation of stroke patients: an in Silico model

“…The anode was placed over the M1 hand area (C3 or C4) of the affected hemisphere and the cathode over the contralesional M1 hand area (C4 or C3) for bi-hemispheric tDCS. The electrodes were modeled as 5 × 5-cm rectangular electrodes and 2 mA was delivered to the anode 23 . We formulated the tDCS problem by applying Maxwell’s equation, which was transformed into the Laplace equation to represent the tDCS conditions.…”

Delayed closed-loop neurostimulation for the treatment of pathological brain rhythms in mental disorders

“…Experimental stimulation protocols have to ensure the subjects safety [47] and thus avoide stimulus-induced health risks and complications. For instance, tDCS may be administered for a duration of 60 minutes and a maximum current of 4 mA without yielding health risks.…”

Electric Field Simulation and Appropriate Electrode Positioning for Optimized Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of Stroke Patients: An In Silico Model

“…The anode was placed over the M1 hand area (C3 or C4) of the affected hemisphere and the cathode over the contralesional M1 hand area (C4 or C3) for bilateral tDCS. The electrodes were modeled as 5 x 5-cm rectangular electrodes and 2 mA was delivered to the anode [22]. For optimized tDCS, the coordinates of the target region were obtained by identifying the anatomical hand knob [23] of the affected side in each brain MRI scan and entered into tES LAB software.…”