Meeting Banner
Abstract #4191

Enhanced resting-state functional connectivity in spatial navigation networks after targeted transcranial direct current stimulation

Venkatagiri Krishnamurthy 1 , Kaundinya S Gopinath 1 , Gregory S Brown 2 , and Benjamin M Hampstead 2,3

1 Dept of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, 2 Dept of Rehabilitation Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, 3 Atlanta VAMC RR&D Center of Excellence in Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation, Decatur, GA, United States

Spatial navigation ability declines in the elderly, and in Alzheimers disease. Enhancing navigation skills will result in functional improvement in these populations. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can be used to modulate cortical excitability and brain cognition. In this preliminary study, we examined resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in spatial navigation networks with functional MRI, after tDCS-based excitation of appropriate brain regions. RsFC among a number of areas involved in spatial navigation increased significantly after tDCS. The results can be employed to evolve a framework for evoking plastic reparatory changes in brain networks through tDCS and monitoring them with rsFMRI.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here