Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 29, 2026
Simultaneous EEG Monitoring During Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Published on: June 17, 2013
Prefrontocerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation increases amplitude and decreases latency of P3b
Francesco Saverio Bersani1, Amedeo Minichino1, Francesco Fattapposta1
1Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Introduction:
Neurocognitive impairments have been observed in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) even during the euthymic phase of the disease, potentially representing trait-associated rather than state-associated characteristics of the disorder. In the present study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to cerebellar and prefrontal cortices to improve the neurophysiological performances of patients with euthymic BD.
Methods:
Twenty-five outpatients with BD underwent open-label prefrontocerebellar tDCS for 3 consecutive weeks. Neurophysiological performances were assessed through the examination of the P3b and P3a subcomponents of P300 event-related potential at baseline and after stimulation.
Results:
Compared to baseline, P3b component after tDCS showed significantly higher amplitude and shorter latency (latency: Fz P=0.02, Cz P=0.03, and Pz P=0.04; amplitude: Fz P=0.24, Cz P=0.02, and Pz P=0.35).
Conclusion:
In our sample of patients with euthymic BD, concomitant prefrontoexcitatory and cerebellar-inhibitory modulations led to improved brain information processing stream. This improvement may at least partially result from neuroplastic modulation of prefrontocerebellar circuitry activity.
