tDCS AND obesity

Obesity remains a major public health concern and novel treatments are needed. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique shown to reduce food craving and consumption, especially when targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) with a right anode/left cathode electrode montage. Despite the implications to treat frank (non-bingeeating) obesity, no study has tested the right anode/left cathode montage in this population. Additionally, most tDCS appetite studies have not controlled for differences in traits under DLPFC control that may influence how well one responds to tDCS...

BACKGROUND: Impulsivity has been found to be associated with overeating and obesity. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may enhance inhibitory control while reducing food craving and intake. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether tDCS stimulation modifies food choice, craving and consumption as a function of trait impulsivity. METHODS: Forty-two predominantly healthy-weight women received active tDCS stimulation to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and sham stimulation in a within participant design...

OBJECTIVE: To describe the state of the human research literature pertaining to the use of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) procedures for modulating food cravings, food consumption, and treating disorders of eating (i.e., obesity, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa). METHODS: A narrative review of methods, empirical findings, and current areas of controversy. Both single-session experimental and multi-session therapeutic modalities are considered, separately for repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technologies...

BACKGROUND: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays an important role in the regulation of food intake. Several previous studies demonstrated that a single session of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the DLPFC reduces food craving and caloric intake. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that repeated tDCS of the right DLPFC cortex may exert long-term changes in food craving in young, healthy adults and that these changes may differ between normal and overweight subjects...

It has been suggested that food craving-an intense desire to consume a specific food (particularly foods high in sugar and fat)-can lead to obesity. This behavior has also been associated with abuse of other substances, such as drugs. Both drugs and food cause dependence by acting on brain circuitry involved in reward, motivation, and decision-making processes. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can be activated following evocation and is implicated in alterations in food behavior and craving. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive brain stimulation technique capable of modulates brain activity significantly, has emerged as a promising treatment to inhibit craving...

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurodevelopmental genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disabilities and insatiable appetite with compulsive eating leading to severe obesity with detrimental health consequences. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to modulate decision-making and cue-induced food craving in healthy adults. We conducted a pilot double blind, sham-controlled, multicenter study of tDCS modulation of food drive and craving in 10 adult PWS participants, 11 adult obese (OB) and 11 adult healthy-weight control (HWC) subjects...

OBJECTIVE: Obesity is associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) modifies cortical excitability and may facilitate improved control of eating. The energy intake (EI) and body weight in subjects who received cathodal versus sham (study 1) and subsequent anodal versus sham (study 2) tDCS aimed at the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (LDLPFC) were measured. METHODS: Nine (3m, 6f) healthy volunteers with obesity (94 ± 15 kg [M ± SD]; 42 ± 8 y) were admitted as inpatients for 9 days to participate in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover experiment...

Functional, molecular and genetic neuroimaging has highlighted the existence of brain anomalies and neural vulnerability factors related to obesity and eating disorders such as binge eating or anorexia nervosa. In particular, decreased basal metabolism in the prefrontal cortex and striatum as well as dopaminergic alterations have been described in obese subjects, in parallel with increased activation of reward brain areas in response to palatable food cues. Elevated reward region responsivity may trigger food craving and predict future weight gain...

OBJECTIVE: Arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are associated with improved long-term outcomes but longer maturation times and higher primary failure rates compared with arteriovenous grafts (AVGs). The Fistula First Breakthrough Initiative has recently emphasized tunneled dialysis catheter (TDC) avoidance. We sought to characterize the relationship of AVFs and AVGs to the use of TDCs as well as secondary procedures. METHODS: Using the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) database, we identified incident hemodialysis (HD) patients in 2005 that started HD with a TDC and survived at least 1 year...

Brain energy consumption induced by electrical stimulation increases systemic glucose tolerance in normal-weight men. In obesity, fundamental reductions in brain energy levels, gray matter density, and cortical metabolism, as well as chronically impaired glucose tolerance, suggest that disturbed neuroenergetic regulation may be involved in the development of overweight and obesity. Here, we induced neuronal excitation by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation versus sham, examined cerebral energy consumption with (31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and determined systemic glucose uptake by euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic glucose clamp in 15 normal-weight and 15 obese participants...

Bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and some forms of obesity are characterised by compulsive overeating that is often precipitated by food craving. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used to suppress food cravings, but there is insufficient evidence to support its application in clinical practice. Furthermore, the potential moderating role of impulsivity has not been considered. This study used a randomised within-subjects crossover design to examine whether a 20-minute session of sham-controlled bilateral tDCS to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (anode right/cathode left) would transiently modify food cravings and temporal discounting (TD; a measure of choice impulsivity) in 17 healthy women with frequent food cravings...

Recent studies show that acute neuromodulation of the prefrontal cortex with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can decrease food craving, attentional bias to food, and actual food intake. These data suggest potential clinical applications for tDCS in the field of obesity. However, optimal stimulation parameters in obese individuals are uncertain. One fundamental concern is whether a thick, low-conductivity layer of subcutaneous fat around the head can affect current density distribution and require dose adjustments during tDCS administration...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is emerging as a promising technique for neuromodulation in a variety of clinical conditions. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that modifying the activity of brain circuits involved in eating behavior could provide therapeutic benefits in obesity. One session of tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex can induce an acute decrease in food craving, according to three small clinical trials, but the extension of these findings into the field of obesity remains unexplored...

Because of pilot data suggesting the efficacy of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in treating a range of neuropsychiatric disorders as well as in controlling cravings, there is interest to apply to obese subjects. The abnormal thickness of fat that exist in obese subjects may influence current delivery from scalp electrodes to the brain. MRI-derived Finite Element (FE) models of a morbidly obese subject were created with and without fat delineated. The inclusion of fat to the FE model reduced the effective volume of the relatively conductive skin...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and cardiovascular diseases are intimately associated. Depression is an independent risk factor for mortality in cardiovascular samples. Neuroendocrine dysfunctions in MDD are related to an overactive hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increased sympathetic activity. Novel intervention strategies for MDD include the non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)...