Carefully Applied Electric Shocks to the Brain for Stroke?

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has fallen out of use in recent decades. It seems rather awful to apply an electric shock to the brain, and the results, when used in treating depression or schizophrenia, weren’t very good. Remember “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”? Now it’s been found that a short jolt of electricity to the scalp can improve dexterity in people who have had a stroke.

The relevant findings are posted in BioMedCentral Neuroscience. A weak current is applied by electrodes to the scalp. The effect is to stimulate or depress the underlying brain neurons, depending on the polarity of the current. Application of a depressive current over the non-dominant motor cortex (usually that on the left side) and a stimulating current over the dominant side was found to improve volunteers to improve their scores on key-board numbers input by 16%.

These findings, obtained in healthy volunteers, suggest strongly that a similar approach could be used in stroke victims to improve controlled movement in a non-dominant hand. Maybe there is a role for the application of electrodes to the skulls of some patients, after all!