J. Neurosci. 30, 11476–11485 (2010)

People with psychiatric conditions could one day have the activity of their brain cells modified by low-level electrical stimulation, applied through electrodes on the scalp.

According to György Buzsáki at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, and his colleagues, this transcranial electric stimulation (TES) might offer an alternative to transcranial magnetic stimulation. This is widely used to study the human brain, but is impractical for outpatients because it involves bulky electrical coils.

Buzsáki's team showed that the weak electrical fields generated by TES electrodes placed on the skulls of rats reliably changed the electrical activity of neurons — for example, by enhancing or suppressing firing — in many important brain areas, when the animals were anaesthetized or asleep.