Medial prefrontal transcranial alternating current stimulation for apathy in Huntington's disease

We investigated the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) targeted to the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and administered at either delta or alpha frequencies, on brain activity and apathy in people with Huntington's disease (HD) (n = 17). Given the novelty o...

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Veröffentlicht in:Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry 2023-08, Vol.126, p.110776-110776, Article 110776
Hauptverfasser: Davis, Marie-Claire, Hill, Aron T., Fitzgerald, Paul B., Bailey, Neil W., Sullivan, Caley, Stout, Julie C., Hoy, Kate E.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:We investigated the effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) targeted to the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and administered at either delta or alpha frequencies, on brain activity and apathy in people with Huntington's disease (HD) (n = 17). Given the novelty of the protocol, neurotypical controls (n = 20) were also recruited. All participants underwent three 20-min sessions of tACS; one session at alpha frequency (Individualised Alpha Frequency (IAF), or 10 Hz when an IAF was not detected); one session at delta frequency (2 Hz); and a session of sham tACS. Participants completed the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task with simultaneous recording of EEG immediately before and after each tACS condition. The MID task presents participants with cues signalling potential monetary gains or losses that increase activity in key regions of the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical networks, with dysfunction of the latter network being implicated in the pathophysiology of apathy. We used the P300 and Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) event-related potentials elicited during the MID task as markers of mPFC engagement. HD participants' CNV amplitude significantly increased in response to alpha-tACS, but not delta-tACS or sham. Neurotypical controls' P300 and CNV were not modulated by any of the tACS conditions, but they did demonstrate a significant decrease in post-target response times following alpha-tACS. We present this as preliminary evidence of the ability of alpha-tACS to modulate brain activity associated with apathy in HD. •Proof-of-concept study targeting mPFC with tACS in people with HD and controls.•P300 and CNV on the MID task used as neurophysiological markers of apathy.•Compared 20 min sessions of tACS at alpha and delta frequencies as well as sham.•Amplitude of the CNV on the MID task was increased by alpha-tACS in the HD group.•The control group's response times on the MID task were decreased by alpha-tACS.
ISSN:0278-5846
1878-4216
DOI:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2023.110776