Preprint · Jun 29, 2026
Cortical electric-field dose to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex across the cognitive continuum: a computational modeling study in OASIS-3
By da Costa BF, Panizzutti R
Transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) has emerged as a potential therapeutic intervention for cognitive decline in older adults, with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) as a frequent target. However, individual responses to tES vary widely, likely due to inter-individual anatomical differences that affect how much electric field actually reaches the brain for a given applied current. Brain atrophy, which increases with age and clinical cognitive decline, is a major anatomical factor: cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in atrophied brains and shunts electric current away from neural tissue. Previous computational modeling studies (e.g., Indahlastari et al., 2020, in healthy older adults) have shown that brain atrophy mediates a negative correlation between age and cortical field dose. However, no study has quantified whether this gradient of decreasing cortical dose extends across the clinical continuum—from cognitively normal, to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), to dementia—nor has any study calculated the individualized current adjustments needed to equalize dose across these groups.