Electric field causes volumetric changes in the human brain

Recent longitudinal neuroimaging studies in patients with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) suggest local effects of electric stimulation (lateralized) occur in tandem with global seizure activity (generalized). We used electric field (EF) modeling in 151 ECT treated patients with depression to determ...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Argyelan, Miklos, Pujol Nuez, Jesús, Abbott, Christopher
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2019
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/46617
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46617
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49115
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:ECT
Depression
Electric field modeling
Human
Human biology
Medicine
Neuroimaging
Volume change
Description
Summary:Recent longitudinal neuroimaging studies in patients with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) suggest local effects of electric stimulation (lateralized) occur in tandem with global seizure activity (generalized). We used electric field (EF) modeling in 151 ECT treated patients with depression to determine the regional relationships between EF, unbiased longitudinal volume change, and antidepressant response across 85 brain regions. The majority of regional volumes increased significantly, and volumetric changes correlated with regional electric field (t = 3.77, df = 83, r = 0.38, p=0.0003). After controlling for nuisance variables (age, treatment number, and study site), we identified two regions (left amygdala and left hippocampus) with a strong relationship between EF and volume change (FDR corrected p<0.01). However, neither structural volume changes nor electric field was associated with antidepressant response. In summary, we showed that high electrical fields are strongly associated with robust volume changes in a dose-dependent fashion.