Bilateral Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Changes the Drug-cued Reactivity in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex of Crack-cocaine Addicts

• Main Authors: Catarine Lima Conti, Ester Miyuki Nakamura-Palacios
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2014-01-01
• Series: Brain Stimulation
• Subjects: tDCS; Crack-cocaine addiction; Event-related potential; Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; Anterior cingulate cortex
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1935861X13002891

Background: Patients addicted to crack-cocaine routinely have difficulty sustaining treatment, which could be related to dysfunctional cerebral activity that occurs in addiction. Objective: To investigate the indirect electrophysiological effects of single transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cocaine-addicted brains. Methods: The patients received either left cathodal/right anodal or sham stimulation over the DLPFC. The region of interest was the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during the N2 time window (200–350 ms). Event-related potentials in the ACC were measured during visual presentation of crack-related cues or neutral cues. Results: Low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) indicated that exposure to crack-related images led to increased activity in the ACC in the sham group, while the tDCS group showed decreased ACC activity after visualization of drug cues. Conclusion: Prefrontal tDCS specifically modulated the ACC response during exposure to visual drug cues in crack-cocaine users.