Brain Stimul
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Clinical Trial
Feasibility, safety and efficacy of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in chronic tinnitus: an open pilot study.
Vagus nerve stimulation represents an established treatment strategy for epilepsy and affective disorders. Recently, positive effects were also shown in animals and humans with tinnitus. Here we report the results of an open pilot study exploring feasibility, safety and efficacy of tVNS in the treatment of chronic tinnitus. ⋯ Our data demonstrate the feasibility of tVNS over a period of 6 months. There was no clinically relevant improvement of tinnitus complaints. Our data suggest tVNS to be considered safe in patients without a history of cardiac disease.
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Age-related differences in short- and long-interval intracortical inhibition in a human hand muscle.
Effects of age on the assessment of intracortical inhibition with paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been variable, which may be due to between-study differences in test TMS intensity and test motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude. ⋯ Advancing age influences GABA-mediated intracortical inhibition, but the outcome is dependent on the experimental conditions. Age-related differences in SICI and LICI were influenced by test TMS intensity and test MEP amplitude, suggesting that these are important considerations when assessing intracortical inhibition in older adults, particularly in an active muscle.
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Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is regarded as an effective way to treat refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Little is known about the effects of DBS cessation following a longer period of stimulation. ⋯ Acute DBS cessation causes a relapse of obsessions and compulsions and a rebound of anxiety and depression. Additionally, improvements on QoL disappear.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Evidence for a role of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in controlling stimulus-response integration: a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) study.
Acting coherently upon stimuli requires some kind of integration of stimulus and response features across various distinct cortical feature maps (one aspect of the binding problem). Although the process of feature binding proper seems rather automatic, recent studies revealed that the management of stimulus-response bindings is less efficient in populations with impaired cognitive-control processes. ⋯ This finding provides empirical support for a role of the right DLPFC in feature-binding management, which might consist in preventing the stimulus-induced activation of previously created, but now task-irrelevant, episodic bindings. From a methodological perspective, the finding may suggest that tDCS could be used as a temporary, reversible "brain lesion" generator in healthy subjects, enabling experimental investigation of how the brain works.