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Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects

Recent studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is potentially useful to improve working memory. In the present study, young and elderly subjects performed a working memory task (n-back task) during an electroencephalogram recording before and after receiving ano...

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Autores principales: Cespón, Jesús, Rodella, Claudia, Rossini, Paolo M., Miniussi, Carlo, Pellicciari, Maria C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29326582
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00420
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author Cespón, Jesús
Rodella, Claudia
Rossini, Paolo M.
Miniussi, Carlo
Pellicciari, Maria C.
author_facet Cespón, Jesús
Rodella, Claudia
Rossini, Paolo M.
Miniussi, Carlo
Pellicciari, Maria C.
author_sort Cespón, Jesús
collection PubMed
description Recent studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is potentially useful to improve working memory. In the present study, young and elderly subjects performed a working memory task (n-back task) during an electroencephalogram recording before and after receiving anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We investigated modulations of behavioral performance and electrophysiological correlates of working memory processes (frontal and parietal P300 event-related potentials). A strong tendency to modulated working memory performance was observed after the application of tDCS. In detail, young, but not elderly, subjects benefited from additional practice in the absence of real tDCS, as indicated by their more accurate responses after sham tDCS. The cathodal tDCS had no effect in any group of participants. Importantly, anodal tDCS improved accuracy in elderly. Moreover, increased accuracy after anodal tDCS was correlated with a larger frontal P300 amplitude. These findings suggest that, in elderly subjects, improved working memory after anodal tDCS applied over the left DLPFC may be related to the promotion of frontal compensatory mechanisms, which are related to attentional processes.
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spelling pubmed-57416802018-01-11 Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects Cespón, Jesús Rodella, Claudia Rossini, Paolo M. Miniussi, Carlo Pellicciari, Maria C. Front Aging Neurosci Neuroscience Recent studies have demonstrated that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is potentially useful to improve working memory. In the present study, young and elderly subjects performed a working memory task (n-back task) during an electroencephalogram recording before and after receiving anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). We investigated modulations of behavioral performance and electrophysiological correlates of working memory processes (frontal and parietal P300 event-related potentials). A strong tendency to modulated working memory performance was observed after the application of tDCS. In detail, young, but not elderly, subjects benefited from additional practice in the absence of real tDCS, as indicated by their more accurate responses after sham tDCS. The cathodal tDCS had no effect in any group of participants. Importantly, anodal tDCS improved accuracy in elderly. Moreover, increased accuracy after anodal tDCS was correlated with a larger frontal P300 amplitude. These findings suggest that, in elderly subjects, improved working memory after anodal tDCS applied over the left DLPFC may be related to the promotion of frontal compensatory mechanisms, which are related to attentional processes. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-12-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5741680/ /pubmed/29326582 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00420 Text en Copyright © 2017 Cespón, Rodella, Rossini, Miniussi and Pellicciari. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Cespón, Jesús
Rodella, Claudia
Rossini, Paolo M.
Miniussi, Carlo
Pellicciari, Maria C.
Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title_full Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title_fullStr Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title_full_unstemmed Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title_short Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Promotes Frontal Compensatory Mechanisms in Healthy Elderly Subjects
title_sort anodal transcranial direct current stimulation promotes frontal compensatory mechanisms in healthy elderly subjects
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29326582
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00420
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