Transcranial direct current stimulation: estimation of the electric field and of the current density in an anatomical human head model.

Abstract

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of the electric field and of the current density in the brain tissues induced by transcranial direct current stimulation of the primary motor cortex. A numerical method was applied on a realistic human head model to calculate these field distributions in different brain structures, such as the cortex, the white matter, the cerebellum, the hippocampus, the medulla oblongata, the pons, the midbrain, and the thalamus. The influence of varying the anode area, the cathode area, and the injected current was also investigated. An electrode area as the one typically used in clinical practice (i.e., both electrodes equal to 35 cm(2)) resulted into complex and diffuse amplitude distributions over all the examined brain structures, with the region of maximum induced field being below or close to the anode. Variations in either the anode or cathode area corresponded to changes in the field amplitude distribution in all the brain tissues, with the former variation producing more diffuse effects. Variations in the injected current resulted, as could be expected, in linearly correlated changes in the field amplitudes.