Establishment of an in-vitro model of transcranial direct current stimulation: Implications for motor cortical plasticity

Introduction: Although transcranial direct current stimulation (DCS) has been used for various clinical purposes for more than half a century, its underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Recent studies showed that transcranial DCS to human primary motor cortex (M1) in combination with training enhances motor skill learning (Reis 2009), suggesting a role of long-term synaptic plasticity. Here, we developed a method to apply DCS directly to mouse motor cortex slices. Methods: Field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (fEPSP) were elicited in layer II/III by stimulation of the vertical pathway (layer V – II/III) at 0…