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Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory

BACKGROUND: Working memory, as a complex system, consists of two independent components: manipulation and maintenance process, which are defined as executive control and storage process. Previous studies mainly focused on the overall effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on workin...

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Autores principales: Wang, Jiarui, Tian, Jinhua, Hao, Renning, Tian, Lili, Liu, Qiang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5978386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29868292
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4906
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author Wang, Jiarui
Tian, Jinhua
Hao, Renning
Tian, Lili
Liu, Qiang
author_facet Wang, Jiarui
Tian, Jinhua
Hao, Renning
Tian, Lili
Liu, Qiang
author_sort Wang, Jiarui
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Working memory, as a complex system, consists of two independent components: manipulation and maintenance process, which are defined as executive control and storage process. Previous studies mainly focused on the overall effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory. However, little has been known about the segregative effects of tDCS on the sub-processes within working memory. METHOD: Transcranial direct current stimulation, as one of the non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, is being widely used to modulate the cortical activation of local brain areas. This study modified a spatial n-back experiment with anodal and cathodal tDCS exertion on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), aiming to investigate the effects of tDCS on the two sub-processes of working memory: manipulation (updating) and maintenance. Meanwhile, considering the separability of tDCS effects, we further reconfirmed the causal relationship between the right DLPFC and the sub-processes of working memory with different tDCS conditions. RESULTS: The present study showed that cathodal tDCS on the right DLPFC selectively improved the performance of the modified 2-back task in the difficult condition, whereas anodal tDCS significantly reduced the performance of subjects and showed an speeding-up tendency of response time. More precisely, the results of discriminability index and criterion showed that only cathodal tDCS enhanced the performance of maintenance in the difficult condition. Neither of the two tDCS conditions affected the performance of manipulation (updating). CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that cathodal tDCS of the right DLPFC selectively affects maintenance capacity. Besides, cathodal tDCS also serves as an interference suppressor to reduce the irrelevant interference, thereby indirectly improving the working memory capacity. Moreover, the right DLPFC is not the unique brain regions for working memory manipulation (updating).
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spelling pubmed-59783862018-06-04 Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory Wang, Jiarui Tian, Jinhua Hao, Renning Tian, Lili Liu, Qiang PeerJ Psychiatry and Psychology BACKGROUND: Working memory, as a complex system, consists of two independent components: manipulation and maintenance process, which are defined as executive control and storage process. Previous studies mainly focused on the overall effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory. However, little has been known about the segregative effects of tDCS on the sub-processes within working memory. METHOD: Transcranial direct current stimulation, as one of the non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, is being widely used to modulate the cortical activation of local brain areas. This study modified a spatial n-back experiment with anodal and cathodal tDCS exertion on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), aiming to investigate the effects of tDCS on the two sub-processes of working memory: manipulation (updating) and maintenance. Meanwhile, considering the separability of tDCS effects, we further reconfirmed the causal relationship between the right DLPFC and the sub-processes of working memory with different tDCS conditions. RESULTS: The present study showed that cathodal tDCS on the right DLPFC selectively improved the performance of the modified 2-back task in the difficult condition, whereas anodal tDCS significantly reduced the performance of subjects and showed an speeding-up tendency of response time. More precisely, the results of discriminability index and criterion showed that only cathodal tDCS enhanced the performance of maintenance in the difficult condition. Neither of the two tDCS conditions affected the performance of manipulation (updating). CONCLUSION: These findings provide evidence that cathodal tDCS of the right DLPFC selectively affects maintenance capacity. Besides, cathodal tDCS also serves as an interference suppressor to reduce the irrelevant interference, thereby indirectly improving the working memory capacity. Moreover, the right DLPFC is not the unique brain regions for working memory manipulation (updating). PeerJ Inc. 2018-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC5978386/ /pubmed/29868292 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4906 Text en © 2018 Wang et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Psychiatry and Psychology
Wang, Jiarui
Tian, Jinhua
Hao, Renning
Tian, Lili
Liu, Qiang
Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title_full Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title_fullStr Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title_full_unstemmed Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title_short Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right DLPFC selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
title_sort transcranial direct current stimulation over the right dlpfc selectively modulates subprocesses in working memory
topic Psychiatry and Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5978386/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29868292
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4906
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