Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Excitability changes induced in the human auditory cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation: direct electrophysiological evidence

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experimental Brain Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can systematically modify behavior by inducing changes in the underlying brain function. Objective electrophysiological evidence for tDCS-induced excitability changes has been demonstrated for the visual and somatosensory cortex, while evidence for excitability changes in the auditory cortex is lacking. In the present study, we applied tDCS over the left temporal as well as the left temporo-parietal cortex and investigated tDCS-induced effects on auditory evoked potentials after anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation. Results show that anodal and cathodal tDCS can modify auditory cortex reactivity. Moreover, auditory evoked potentials were differentially modulated as a function of site of stimulation. While anodal tDCS over the temporal cortex increased auditory P50 amplitudes, cathodal tDCS over the temporo-parietal cortex induced larger N1 amplitudes. The results directly demonstrate excitability changes in the auditory cortex induced by active tDCS over the temporal and temporo-parietal cortex and might contribute to the understanding of mechanisms involved in the successful treatment of auditory disorders like tinnitus via tDCS.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Accornero N, Li Voti P, La Riccia M, Gregori B (2007) Visual evoked potentials modulation during direct current cortical polarization. Exp Brain Res 178:261–266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ambrus GG, Zimmer M, Kincses ZT, Harza I, Kovács G, Paulus W, Antal A (2011) The enhancement of cortical excitability over the DLPFC before and during training impairs categorization in the prototype distortion task. Neuropsychologia 49:1974–1980

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Annett M (1970) A classification of hand preference by association analysis. Br J Psychol 61:303–321

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Antal A, Kincses TZ, Nitsche MA, Paulus W (2003) Manipulation of phosphene thresholds by transcranial direct current stimulation in man. Exp Brain Res 150:375–378

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Antal A, Kincses TZ, Nitsche MA, Bartfai O, Paulus W (2004) Excitability changes induced in the human primary visual cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation: direct electrophysiological evidence. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 45:702–707

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Antal A, Brepohl N, Poreisz C, Boros K, Csifcsak G, Paulus W (2008) Transcranial direct current stimulation over somatosensory cortex decreases experimentally induced acute pain perception. Clin J Pain 24:56–63

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Been G, Ngo TT, Miller SM, Fitzgerald PB (2007) The use of tDCS and CVS as methods of non-invasive brain stimulation. Brain Res Rev 56:346–361

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bindman LJ, Lippold OC, Redfearn JW (1962) Long-lasting changes in the level of the electrical activity of the cerebral cortex produced bypolarizing currents. Nature 196:584–585

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bullard LM, Browning ES, Clark VP, Coffman BA, Garcia CM, Jung RE, van der Merwe AJ, Paulson KM, Vakhtin AA, Wootton CL, Weisend MP (2011) Transcranial direct current stimulation’s effect on novice versus experienced learning. Exp Brain Res 213:9–14

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Delorme A, Makeig S (2004) EEGLAB: an open source toolbox for analysis of single-trial EEG dynamics including independent component analysis. J Neurosci Methods 134:9–21

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Delorme A, Sejnowski T, Makeig S (2007) Enhanced detection of artifacts in EEG data using higher-order statistics and independent component analysis. Neuroimage 34:1443–1449

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dieckhofer A, Waberski TD, Nitsche M, Paulus W, Buchner H, Gobbele R (2006) Transcranial direct current stimulation applied over the somatosensory cortex—differential effect on low and high frequency SEPs. Clin Neurophysiol 117:2221–2227

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fox D (2011) Neuroscience: brain buzz. Nature 472:156–158

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fregni F, Marcondes R, Boggio PS, Marcolin MA, Rigonatti SP, Sanchez TG, Nitsche MA, Pascual-Leone A (2006) Transient tinnitus suppression induced by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation. Eur J Neurol 13:996–1001

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Furubayashi T, Terao Y, Arai N, Okabe S, Mochizuki H, Hanajima R, Hamada M, Yugeta A, Inomata-Terada S, Ugawa Y (2008) Short and long duration transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the human hand motor area. Exp Brain Res 185:279–286

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gandiga PC, Hummel FC, Cohen LG (2006) Transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS): a tool for double-blind sham-controlled clinical studies in brain stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 117:845–850

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garin P, Gilain C, Van Damme JP, de Fays K, Jamart J, Ossemann M, Vandermeeren Y (2011) Short- and long-lasting tinnitus relief induced by transcranial direct current stimulation. J Neurol [Epub ahead of print]

  • Gartside IB (1968) Mechanisms of sustained increases of firing rate of neurons in the rat cerebral cortex after polarization: reverberating circuits or modification of synaptic conductance? Nature 220:382–383

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hattori Y, Moriwaki A, Hori Y (1990) Biphasic effects of polarizing current on adenosine-sensitive generation of cyclic AMP in rat cerebral cortex. Neurosci Lett 116:320–324

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jasper HH (1958) The ten-twenty electrode system of the international federation. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 10:371–375

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffery DT, Norton JA, Roy FD, Gorassini MA (2007) Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on the excitability of the leg motor cortex. Exp Brain Res 182:281–287

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jung TP, Makeig S, Humphries C, Lee TW, McKeown MJ, Iragui V, Sejnowski TJ (2000a) Removing electroencephalographic artifacts by blind source separation. Psychophysiology 37:163–178

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jung TP, Makeig S, Westerfield M, Townsend J, Courchesne E, Sejnowski TJ (2000b) Removal of eye activity artifacts from visual event-related potentials in normal and clinical subjects. Clin Neurophysiol 111:1745–1758

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kincses TZ, Antal A, Nitsche MA, Bártfai O, Paulus W (2004) Facilitation of probabilistic classification learning by transcranial direct current stimulation of the prefrontal cortex in the human. Neuropsychologia 42:113–117

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinjung T, Langguth B (2009) Strategies for enhancement of transcranial magnetic stimulation effects in tinnitus patients. Int Tinnitus J 15:154–160

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kraft A, Roehmel J, Olma MC, Schmidt S, Irlbacher K, Brandt SA (2010) Transcranial direct current stimulation affects visual perception measured by threshold perimetry. Exp Brain Res 207:283–290

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Liebetanz D, Nitsche MA, Tergau F, Paulus W (2002) Pharmacological approach to the mechanisms of transcranial DC-stimulation-induced after-effects of human motor cortex excitability. Brain 125:2238–2247

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Loui P, Hohmann A, Schlaug G (2010) Inducing disorders in pitch perception and production: a reverse-engineering approach. Proc Meet Acoust 9:50002

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Madhavan S, Weber KA 2nd, Stinear JW (2011) Non-invasive brain stimulation enhances fine motor control of the hemiparetic ankle: implications for rehabilitation. Exp Brain Res 209:9–17

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Matsunaga K, Nitsche MA, Tsuji S, Rothwell JC (2004) Effect of transcranial DC sensorimotor cortex stimulation on somatosensory evoked potentials in humans. Clin Neurophysiol 115:456–460

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miranda PC, Lomarev M, Hallett M (2006) Modeling the current distribution during transcranial direct current stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 117:1623–1629

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nitsche MA, Paulus W (2000) Excitability changes induced in the human motor cortex by weak transcranial direct current stimulation. J Physiol 527(3):633–639

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nitsche MA, Antal A, Liebetanz D, Lang N, Tergau F, Paulus W (2003) Modulation of cortical excitability by weak direct current stimulation: technical, safety and functional aspects. Clin Electrophysiol Suppl 56:255–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nitsche MA, Cohen LG, Wassermann EM, Priori A, Lang N, Antal A, Paulus W, Hummel F, Boggio PS, Fregni F, Pascual-Leone A (2008) Transcranial direct current stimulation: state of the art 2008. Brain Stimulation 1:206–223

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Purpura DP, McMurtry JG (1965) Intracellular activities and evoked potential changes during polarization of motor cortex. J Neurophysiol 28:166–185

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Quian Quiroga R, Garcia H (2003) Single-trial event-related potentials with wavelet denoising. Clin Neurophysiol 114:376–390

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Radman T, Ramos RL, Brumberg JC, Bikson M (2009) Role of cortical cell type and morphology in subthreshold and suprathreshold uniform electric field stimulation in vitro. Brain Stimul. 2:215–228

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roth BJ (1994) Mechanisms for electrical stimulation of excitable tissue. Crit Rev Biomed Eng 22:253–305

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka S, Hanakawa T, Honda M, Watanabe K (2009) Enhancement of pinch force in the lower leg by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation. Exp Brain Res 196:459–465

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vines BW, Schnider NM, Schlaug G (2006) Testing for causality with transcranial direct current stimulation: pitch memory and the left supramarginal gyrus. Neuroreport 17:1047–1050

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zaehle T, Sandmann P, Thorne JD, Jäncke L, Herrmann CS (2011) Transcranial direct current stimulation of the prefrontal cortex modulates working memory performance: combined behavioural and electrophysiological evidence. BMC Neurosci 12:2

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB/TR31-TPA9) (TZ, CSH) and the Swiss National Foundation (PBZHP3-128462) (PS).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Otto v. Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany

    Tino Zaehle

  2. German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Haus 15, Leipziger Strasse 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany

    Tino Zaehle

  3. Institute of Psychology, Division of Neuropsychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Manuela Beretta & Lutz Jäncke

  4. Department of Psychology, Experimental Psychology Lab, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Christoph S. Herrmann

  5. Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology Lab, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

    Pascale Sandmann

Authors
  1. Tino Zaehle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Manuela Beretta
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lutz Jäncke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Christoph S. Herrmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Pascale Sandmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tino Zaehle.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zaehle, T., Beretta, M., Jäncke, L. et al. Excitability changes induced in the human auditory cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation: direct electrophysiological evidence. Exp Brain Res 215, 135–140 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2879-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2879-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation