Transcranial direct current stimulation effects on healthy language networks.

经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）最近引起了相当大的科学，临床和公众的兴趣，因为它允许调制人类大脑功能和行为，而没有显着的不良影响。与其他形式的非侵入性脑刺激相比，tDCS是一种低成本的技术，相对容易管理，从而为临床应用提供了令人兴奋的前景。迄今为止，已有数百篇科学论文报道了tDCS在健康和临床人群中的有益行为影响。然而，最近的实证研究和评论也强调了一些研究中的可变刺激效应和小效应大小。这导致了对tDCS潜力的更谨慎和现实的乐观态度，促使人们迫切呼吁采用更严格的方法，并强调需要增加对tDCS影响复杂人脑网络的机制的了解，这是目前缺乏的。计划中的项目将使用语言领域作为模型，以解决有关tDCS改善健康年轻大脑认知功能的潜在神经机制的关键开放问题。为了实现这一目标，最先进的成像技术和同时常规和局灶性高清晰度（HD-）tDCS管理到不同的任务相关的大脑区域将调查tDCS对健康的大脑网络的直接影响。在第一步中，功能和结构成像数据以及tDCS诱导电流的个性化生物物理模型将被整合到虚拟脑网络中tDCS效应的计算机模拟中。这将允许第一次推导出关于特定tDCS蒙太奇如何影响大规模神经网络的高度特定的先验假设，然后可以使用经验数据和先进的脑网络分析进行验证。作为相关Heisenberg提案的第一个子项目，本研究将建立tDCS对语言相关网络影响的预测模型，从而为系统地将该模型扩展到不同的（a）不同的认知领域（海森堡项目的主题1）和（B）人群（健康老龄化、与年龄相关的临床状况;海森堡建议的主题2）奠定了基础。

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), has recently sparked considerable scientific, clinical and public interest because it allows modulation of human brain function and behaviour without significant adverse effects. Compared to other forms of non-invasive brain stimulation, tDCS is a low cost technique that is relatively easy to administer, thereby offering exciting prospects for clinical applications. To date, hundreds of scientific papers have reported beneficial behavioural effects of tDCS in healthy and clinical populations. However, recent empirical studies and reviews have also highlighted variable stimulation effects and small effect sizes in some studies. This has resulted in more cautious and realistic optimism about the potential of tDCS, prompted urgent calls for more rigorous methodology and emphasized the need to increase knowledge about the mechanisms by which tDCS affects complex human brain networks, which is currently lacking. The planned project will use the language domain as a model to address key open questions about the underlying neural mechanisms by which tDCS improves cognitive function in the healthy young brain. To achieve this goal, state-of-the-art imaging technology and simultaneous conventional and focal high-definition (HD-) tDCS administered to different task-relevant brain regions will investigate the immediate effects of tDCS on healthy brain networks. In a first step, functional and structural imaging data and individualized biophysical models of tDCS induced current flow will be integrated into computer simulations of tDCS effects in virtual brain networks. This will allow to derive for the first time highly specific a priori hypotheses about how specific tDCS montages impact large scale neural networks, that can then be validated using the empirical data and advanced brain network analysis.As the first sub project of an associated Heisenberg proposal, this study will establish a predictive model of tDCS effects on language-related networks, thereby laying the foundation to systematically extend this model into different (a) different cognitive domains (Theme 1 of the Heisenberg project) and (b) populations (healthy aging, age-associated clinical conditions; Theme 2 of the Heisenberg proposal).