TY - JOUR
T1 - Transcranial electric stimulation entrains cortical neuronal populations in rats
AU - Ozen, Simal
AU - Sirota, Anton
AU - Belluscio, Mariano A.
AU - Anastassiou, Costas A.
AU - Stark, Eran
AU - Koch, Christof
AU - Buzsáki, György
PY - 2010/8/25
Y1 - 2010/8/25
N2 - Low intensity electric fields have been suggested to affect the ongoing neuronal activity in vitro and in human studies. However, the physiological mechanism of how weak electrical fields affect and interact with intact brain activity is not well understood. We performed in vivo extracellular and intracellular recordings from the neocortex and hippocampus of anesthetized rats and extracellular recordings in behaving rats. Electric fields were generated by sinusoid patterns at slow frequency (0.8, 1.25 or 1.7 Hz) via electrodes placed on the surface of the skull or the dura. Transcranial electric stimulation (TES) reliably entrained neurons in widespread cortical areas, including the hippocampus. The percentage of TES phase-locked neurons increased with stimulus intensity and depended on the behavioral state of the animal. TES-induced voltage gradient, as low as 1 mV/mm at the recording sites, was sufficient to phase-bias neuronal spiking. Intracellular recordings showed that both spiking and subthreshold activity were under the combined influence of TES forced fields and network activity. We suggest that TES in chronic preparations may be used for experimental and therapeutic control of brain activity.
AB - Low intensity electric fields have been suggested to affect the ongoing neuronal activity in vitro and in human studies. However, the physiological mechanism of how weak electrical fields affect and interact with intact brain activity is not well understood. We performed in vivo extracellular and intracellular recordings from the neocortex and hippocampus of anesthetized rats and extracellular recordings in behaving rats. Electric fields were generated by sinusoid patterns at slow frequency (0.8, 1.25 or 1.7 Hz) via electrodes placed on the surface of the skull or the dura. Transcranial electric stimulation (TES) reliably entrained neurons in widespread cortical areas, including the hippocampus. The percentage of TES phase-locked neurons increased with stimulus intensity and depended on the behavioral state of the animal. TES-induced voltage gradient, as low as 1 mV/mm at the recording sites, was sufficient to phase-bias neuronal spiking. Intracellular recordings showed that both spiking and subthreshold activity were under the combined influence of TES forced fields and network activity. We suggest that TES in chronic preparations may be used for experimental and therapeutic control of brain activity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77956132712&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5252-09.2010
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5252-09.2010
M3 - Article
C2 - 20739569
AN - SCOPUS:77956132712
SN - 0270-6474
VL - 30
SP - 11476
EP - 11485
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
IS - 34
ER -