Social and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and Developmental Disorders Program, Center for Health and Biological Sciences, Mackenzie Presbyterian University, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Neurosci Lett. 2012 Oct 11;527(2):105-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.08.076. Epub 2012 Sep 7.
Somatosensory integration is a critical cognitive function for human social interaction. Though somatosensory integration has been highly explored in cognitive studies; only a few studies have explored focal modulation of cortical excitability using a speech perception paradigm. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effects of tDCS applied over the temporal cortex of healthy subjects during a go-no-go task in which stimuli were shapes and non-words. Twenty-eight subjects were randomized to receive cathodal, anodal or sham tDCS bilaterally over the superior temporal cortex (the reference electrode was on deltoid) in a counterbalanced order. The effects on judgment of congruency between shapes and non-words in healthy volunteers were measured by a go-no-go task. Our findings show a significant modification of performance according to the polarity of stimulation, task and subject gender. We found that men performed worse on the no-go condition for congruent stimuli during cathodal tDCS. For reaction time, on the other hand, there was a similar effect for anodal and cathodal stimulation. There were significantly faster responses on incongruent trials during both anodal and cathodal tDCS. Along with previous literature showing gender differences in tasks associated with speech perception, the findings of this study provide additional evidence suggesting that men may have a more focal and restricted neural processing in this multisensory integration task.
躯体感觉整合是人类社会互动的一项关键认知功能。尽管躯体感觉整合在认知研究中得到了广泛的探索，但只有少数研究使用语音感知范式探索了皮质兴奋性的焦点调制。在本研究中，我们旨在研究在一个 Go-No-Go 任务中，对健康受试者颞叶皮层施加 tDCS 对形状和非词刺激的影响。28 名受试者被随机分为四组，以平衡的方式接受双侧颞上皮质的阴极、阳极或假 tDCS（参考电极置于三角肌上）。通过 Go-No-Go 任务测量 tDCS 对健康志愿者判断形状和非词之间一致性的影响。我们的发现表明，根据刺激、任务和受试者性别，性能会发生显著变化。我们发现，在阴极刺激时，男性在一致性刺激的禁止条件下表现更差。而对于反应时间，阳极和阴极刺激则有类似的影响。在阳极和阴极 tDCS 期间，对不一致的试验反应更快。结合先前关于与语音感知相关任务的性别差异的文献，本研究的发现提供了额外的证据，表明男性在这个多感觉整合任务中可能具有更集中和受限的神经处理。
