Original researchComparatively weak after-effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on cortical excitability in humans
Section snippets
Subjects
Fifty subjects (24 men and 26 women) participated in the studies. None of the subjects took regular or acute medication. Participants gave informed written consent. The experiments were approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Göttingen, and conformed to the Declaration of Helsinki. All subjects were right handed, according to the Edinburgh handedness inventory.14
Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS)
Ten healthy subjects (22-43 years old, mean age = 26.4 ± 8.0, 3 men) participated in the TMS study. Eight healthy
Results
All the subjects tolerated the stimulation; none of the experimental sessions were interrupted because of side effects of the stimulation. However, about half of the subjects noticed light flickering during higher frequency stimulation (30, 45 Hz) by using an intensity of 0.4 mA. As a result, we did not further increase the stimulation amplitude for safety reasons. Only 2 of the subjects reported a light burning sensation under the electrodes during the stimulation. Six subjects experienced a
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This study was funded by the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (01GQ0432) (A.A.) and the Rose Foundation (C.P.).