IS 38. Non-invasive brain stimulation in cognitive neuroscience

• Published in: Clinical neurophysiology Vol. 124; no. 10; p. e51
• Main Authors: Miniussi, C, Harris, J.A, Ruzzoli, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01-10-2013
• Subjects: Neurology
• ISSN: 1388-2457; 1872-8952
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2013.04.057

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) is a unique method to study cognitive functions. NIBS offers the opportunity to study brain mechanisms beyond process localisation, providing information about when activity in a given brain region is involved in a cognitive process, and even how it is involved. We know that NIBS techniques have the potential to transiently influence behaviour by altering neuronal activity, which may have facilitatory or inhibitory behavioural effects, and these alterations can be used to understand how the brain works. NIBS techniques include transcranial magnetic and electric stimulation (TMS and tES). The mechanisms underlying TMS and tES seem to be different, nevertheless, the final behavioural effects induced by TMS and tES are often very similar. In this presentation I will describe the mutual interactions between NIBS and brain activity and provide an updated perspective on the theoretical frameworks of NIBS and their impact on cognitive neuroscience. Given that NIBS necessarily involves the relatively indiscriminate activation of large numbers of neurons, its impact on a neural system can be easily understood as modulation of neural activity that changes the relation between noise and signal. The framework that I wish to proposed here offers the opportunity to understand how NIBS, by altering levels of noise, could usually impair, but sometimes improve performance on a task. Depending on the amount of noise introduced by NIBS, the existing level of noise in the system or in the task due to the state of the subject, it is possible to evaluate the final result. By transitioning the discussion from one aspect (NIBS) to the other (cognition), the aim is to provide insights to guide future research.