Dose-dependent response of prefrontal transcranial direct current
stimulation on heart rate variability: an electric field modeling study
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the prefrontal cortex
(PFC) modulates the autonomic nervous system by activating deeper brain
areas via top-down pathway. However, effects on the nervous system are
heterogeneous and may depend on the amount of current that penetrates
the brain due to individual brain anatomical differences. Therefore,
investigated the variable effects of tDCS on heart rate variability
(HRV), a measure of the functional state of the autonomic nervous
system. Using three prefrontal tDCS protocols (1.5mA, 3mA and sham), we
associated the simulated individual electric field (E-field) magnitude
in brain regions of interest with the HRV effects. This was a
randomized, double-blinded, sham-controlled and within-subject trial, in
which participants received tDCS sessions separated by two weeks. The
brain regions of interest were the dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), anterior
cingulate cortex, insula and amygdala. Overall, 37 participants (mean
age = 24.3 years, standard deviation = 4.8) were investigated,
corresponding to a total of 111 tDCS sessions. The findings suggested
that HRV, measured by Root Mean Squared of Successive Differences
(RMSSD) and high-frequency HRV (HF-HRV), were significantly increased by
the 3.0mA tDCS when compared to sham and 1.5mA. No difference was found
between sham and 1.5mA. E-field analysis showed that all brain regions
of interest were associated with the HRV outcomes. However, this
significance was associated with the protocol intensity, rather than
inter-individual anatomical variability. To conclude, our results
suggest a dose-dependent effect of tDCS for HRV. Therefore, further
research is warranted to investigate the optimal current dose to HRV.