Comment on “Can transcranial electrical stimulation improve learning difficulties in atypical brain development? A future possibility for cognitive training” by Krause and Cohen Kadosh

The aphorism “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” ppears to be the impetus behind a proposal (Krause and ohen Kadosh, 2013) to extend the techniques of transcraial electrical stimulation (TES) to children. This suite of echniques have attracted a great deal of interest amongst hose interested in using them to modify adult brain funcion, but as the authors point out, pediatric use of TES as been essentially non-existent. One reason may be that esearchers in the field of developmental cognitive neurocience are unaware of the possibilities that TES affords; he paper by Krause and Cohen Kadosh is sure to remedy ny such deficiency. The technique admits a remarkable combination of the niversal and the bespoke: generality derives from the bility to apply electrical current to the brain via surface lectrodes which can be positioned nearly anywhere, while pecificity derives from the constraint that underlying neual activity must to be temporally and spatially coincident ith the electrical stimulation to be affected. The result s that only those cognitive events that transpire within he penumbra of electrical stimulation are affected. The ypothesis that drives confidence in the field is that TES oes not drive plasticity, but only alters the statistical likeihood that it will materialize. These features of TES have brought forth an explosion f studies that have demonstrated the ability of the techique to alter cognitive function with both therapeutic and nhancement goals in mind. The results have been more mpressive than many might have anticipated. The minimal ide effects seen with TES to date, coupled with its surrising effectiveness support Krause and Cohen Kadosh’s all for considering using TES in pediatric populations. The ope is that by combining well-crafted cognitive tasks ith TES one will be able to improve cognitive functions hat have a developmental trajectory that has either been elayed or derailed. Laudable as this goal may be, the assoiated issues are hardly trivial.