Stimulation of the dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex improves working memory and planning, By Afsaneh Moradi

Research

Title	Stimulation of the dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex improves working memory and planning
Type	Article
Keywords	transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS), dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), working memory (WM), planning
Journal	Cognition, Brain, Behavior
DOI	10.24193/cbb.2021.25.01
Researchers	farzaneh pouladi (First researcher) , Masood Bagheri (Second researcher) , Ghasem Askarizadeh (Third researcher) , Afsaneh Moradi (Fourth researcher)

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate whether working memory (WM) and planning performances can be enhanced using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). A total of 30 healthy individuals were randomly assigned to two groups: active (A)-tDCS and control (S)-tDCS. Anodal stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) (F3) and cathodal stimulation over the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) (FP2) were further implemented at 2 mA in the A-tDCS group, while there was no intervention in the control group. The tools used were software versions of the three-level n-back task and Tower of London (TOL) task, and for each task we measured participants’ response accuracy and response time. The results showed a significant difference between the groups in both cognitive functions, suggesting that tDCS can improve response accuracy in memory and problem-solving ability, but it is less effective in terms of improving response time on planning. Overall, findings suggest that tDCS can enhance WM and planning performances.