title: The application of tDCS in psychiatric disorders: a brain imaging view.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, non-convulsive technique for modulating brain function. In contrast to other non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, where costs, clinical applicability, and availability limit their large-scale use in clinical practices, the low-cost, portable, and easy-to-use tDCS devices may overcome these restrictions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Despite numerous clinical applications in large numbers of patients suffering from psychiatric disorders, it is not quite clear how tDCS influences the mentally affected human brain. In order to decipher potential neural mechanisms of action of tDCS in patients with psychiatric conditions, we focused on the combination of tDCS with neuroimaging techniques.
  
  
  METHODS
  We propose a contemporary overview on the currently available neurophysiological and neuroimaging data where tDCS has been used as a research or treatment tool in patients with psychiatric disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over a reasonably short period of time, tDCS has been broadly used as a research tool to examine neuronal processes in the healthy brain. tDCS has also commonly been applied as a treatment application in a variety of mental disorders, with to date no straightforward clinical outcome and not always accompanied by brain imaging techniques.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  tDCS, as do other neuromodulation devices, clearly affects the underlying neuronal processes. However, research on these mechanisms in psychiatric patients is rather limited. A better comprehension of how tDCS modulates brain function will help us to define optimal parameters of stimulation in each indication and may result in the detection of biomarkers in favor of clinical response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.|Department of Psychiatry University Hospital (UZBrussel), Brussels, Belgium.|Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium; chris.baeken@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baeken
authors.affiliation: INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, PSYR2 Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France.|CIRRIS-Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Réadaptation et en Intégration Sociale, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Jerome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brunelin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.|Ghent Experimental Psychiatry (GHEP) Lab, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Duprat
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.|Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Free University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marie-Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Vanderhasselt
keywords: brain imaging; neuromodulation; neurostimulation; psychiatric disorders; tDCS