ArticleBrain stimulation
Sex difference in tDCS current mediated by changes in cortical anatomy: A study across young, middle and older adults.
Article in Brain stimulation. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cerebellar tDCS and pain modulation: a critical integrative and systematic review.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Cortical excitability and analgesic effects of multisite transcranial direct current stimulation targeting the motor cortex and cerebellum in fibromyalgia.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Safety and efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation in addition to constraint-induced movement therapy for post-stroke motor recovery (TRANSPORT2): a phase 2, multicentre, randomised, sham-controlled triple-blind trial.The Lancet. Neurology · 2025Trial
- Sex matters for the enhancement of cognitive training with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).Biology of sex differences · 2023Trial
- Individual Differences in Response to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation With Language Therapy in Subacute Stroke.Neurorehabilitation and neural repair · 2023Trial
- Primary outcome from the augmenting cognitive training in older adults study (ACT): A tDCS and cognitive training randomized clinical trial.Brain stimulationTrial
- Sex Does Matter! The Influence of Sex on Outcomes of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).Cells · 2026Review
- Fifteen years on: a review of the Cam-CAN study of the cognitive neuroscience of ageing.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Dissociating prefrontal contribution to reactive and proactive aggression: a transcranial direct current stimulation study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Differential Impacts of Fronto-Cerebellar tACS and tVNS on Motor Learning: Evidence for Sex-Related Neural Modulation.Neural plasticity · 2026Article
- Methods of Computational Modelling in Studies of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Adults to Inform Protocols for Tinnitus Treatment: A Scoping Review.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Dose standardization for transcranial electrical stimulation: an accessible approach.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Efficacy of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation in Primary Progressive Aphasia Treatment: A Review.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Generalized learning induced by training and tDCS is predicted by prefrontal cortical morphology.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Personalized Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Behavioral and Neurophysiologic Outcomes.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Modulating interhemispheric prefrontal dynamics of aggressive behavior: Sex differences and the association with personal disposition.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- The role of structural and functional parameters in designing pathology-specific tDCS protocols for primary progressive aphasia.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Anatomical Characteristics Predict Response to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS): Development of a Computational Pipeline for Optimizing tDCS Protocols.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Amplitude of Intracranial Induced Electric Fields Does Not Linearly Decrease with Age: A Computational Study of Anatomical Effects in Adults.Biosensors · 2025Article
- Examining tolerability, safety, and blinding in 1032 transcranial electrical stimulation sessions for children and adolescents with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.Scientific reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThe observed variability in the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is influenced by the amount of current reaching the targeted region-of-interest (ROI). Age and sex might affect current density at target ROI due to their impact on cortical anatomy. The present tDCS simulation study investigates the effects of cortical anatomical parameters (volumes, dimension, and torque) on simulated tDCS current density in healthy young, middle-aged, and older males and females. METHODOLOGY: Individualized head models from 240 subjects (120 males, 18-87 years of age) were used to identify the estimated current density (2 mA current intensity, 25 cm
resultsFor both tDCS montages, females in the older age group received higher current density than their male counterparts at the target ROIs. No sex differences were observed in the middle-aged group. Males in the younger age group had a higher current density than females, only for the parietal montage. Across all age groups, CSF, and grey matter volumes significantly predicted the current intensity estimated at the target sites. In the older age group only, brain-torque was a significant mediator of the sex difference.
conclusionsOur findings demonstrate the presence of sex differences in the simulated tDCS current density, however this pattern differed across age groups and stimulation locations. Future studies should consider influence of age and sex on individual cortical anatomy and tailor tDCS stimulation parameters accordingly.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.