Bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex changes the drug-cued reactivity in the anterior cingulate cortex of crack-cocaine addicts.

BACKGROUND

Patients addicted to crack-cocaine routinely have difficulty sustaining treatment, which could be related to dysfunctional cerebral activity that occurs in addiction.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the indirect electrophysiological effects of single transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cocaine-addicted brains.

METHODS

The patients received either left cathodal/right anodal or sham stimulation over the DLPFC. The region of interest was the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during the N2 time window (200-350 ms). Event-related potentials in the ACC were measured during visual presentation of crack-related cues or neutral cues.

RESULTS

Low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA) indicated that exposure to crack-related images led to increased activity in the ACC in the sham group, while the tDCS group showed decreased ACC activity after visualization of drug cues.

CONCLUSION

Prefrontal tDCS specifically modulated the ACC response during exposure to visual drug cues in crack-cocaine users.