UEL Psychology Seminar Series
Date: 17th
November 2015
Time:
17:00 - 18:00
Venue: Arthur Edwards Building, Room 2.06
Professor
Michael A. Nitsche
Dept.
Psychology and Neurosciences, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment
and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany
Title:
Physiology, and functional effects of tDCS and related techniques
Abstract:
Neuroplasticity, and functional
connectivity are important physiological derivates of cognition, and behaviour.
Recently introduced non-invasive brain stimulation techniques are suited to
induce, and modulate respective physiological
alterations. One of these techniques is transcranial direct current stimulation
(tDCS). Itsprimary mechanism of action is a polarity-dependent subthreshold
shift of resting membrane potentials, the after-effects of stimulation depend
on the glutamatergic system. Beyond these regional effects, tDCS has been shown
recently to alter cortical, as well as cortico-subcortical functional network
connectivity. This talk will give an overview about the physiological effects,
and will cover functional consequences of tDCS, including sleep-related processes.
Finally, it will be shown how alterations of functional oscillatory
connectivity via transcranial alternating current stimulation can modify
cognitive performance.
Brief Bio:
Michael A. Nitsche is Director of the Dept. Psychology and Neurosciences at
the Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors in
Dortmund, and holds a position as scientific staff member at the Dept.
Neurology of the University Medical Center Bergmannsheil, Bochum, Germany. He
studied Psychology and Medicine at the Georg-August-University in Goettingen,
and performed his Dissertation in Medicine at the Max-Planck-Institute for
Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen. From 1999-2015, he was registrar and
consultant at the Dept. Clinical Neurophysiology of the University Medical
Center in Goettingen. He is a leading expert in plasticity research in humans,
including non-invasive brain stimulation, neuropsychopharmacology, and
cognition. He received grants from various funding organizations, including the
German Research Foundation. He published more than 150 papers in international
peer-reviewed journals, and is member of the editorial board of The Journal of
Neuroscience, Scientific Reports, Clinical Neurophysiology, and Restaurative
Neurology and Neurosciences. He received the Alois Kornmüller, and Richard Jung
Awards by the German Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, and the GESET Award
by the German society of Electrostimulation and Electrotherapy for his work on
non-invasive brain stimulation in humans.
Session Chair:
Dr.
Davide Rivolta
