• Niels Hansen, Mark Obermann, Franziska Poitz, Dagny Holle, Hans-Christoph Diener, Andrea Antal, Walter Paulus, and Zaza Katsarava.
• University Duisburg-Essen, Germany. Hansen_N@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
• Cephalalgia. 2011 Apr 1;31(6):661-70.

ObjectiveThe study was conducted to investigate the after-effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the human primary motor cortex (M1) on trigeminal and extracranial nociceptive processing.Basic ProceduresNineteen healthy volunteers were stimulated using cathodal, anodal (both 1 mA) or sham tDCS for 20 minutes. Pain processing was assessed by recording trigeminal and extracranial pain-related evoked potentials (PREPs) following electrical stimulation of the contralateral forehead and hand at baseline, 0, 20 and 50 minutes post-tDCS.Main FindingsCathodal tDCS resulted in decreased peak-to-peak amplitudes (PPAs) by 18% while anodal tDCS lead to increased PPAs of PREPs by 35% (p < .05).Principal ConclusionsThe decreased PPAs suggest an inhibition and the increased PPAs of PREPs suggest an excitation of trigeminal and extracranial pain processing induced by tDCS of the M1. These results may provide evidence for the effectiveness of tDCS as a therapeutic instrument in treating headache disorders.

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