Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland, and Department of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Brescia, and Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy.
J Neurosci. 2014 Mar 5;34(10):3646-52. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5308-13.2014.
The ability to detect errors during cognitive performance is compromised in older age and in a range of clinical populations. This study was designed to assess the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on error awareness in healthy older human adults. tDCS was applied over DLPFC while subjects performed a computerized test of error awareness. The influence of current polarity (anodal vs cathodal) and electrode location (left vs right hemisphere) was tested in a series of separate single-blind, Sham-controlled crossover trials, each including 24 healthy older adults (age 65-86 years). Anodal tDCS over right DLPFC was associated with a significant increase in the proportion of performance errors that were consciously detected, and this result was recapitulated in a separate replication experiment. No such improvements were observed when the homologous contralateral area was stimulated. The present study provides novel evidence for a causal role of right DLPFC regions in subserving error awareness and marks an important step toward developing tDCS as a tool for remediating the performance-monitoring deficits that afflict a broad range of populations.
在认知表现过程中发现错误的能力会随着年龄的增长和一系列临床人群而受损。本研究旨在评估经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）对健康老年人错误意识的影响。在进行计算机化错误意识测试时，将 tDCS 施加于 DLPFC。在一系列单独的单盲、假刺激对照交叉试验中，测试了电流极性（阳极与阴极）和电极位置（左半球与右半球）的影响，每个试验都包括 24 名健康老年人（年龄 65-86 岁）。右 DLPFC 的阳极 tDCS 与意识检测到的表现错误比例显著增加有关，这一结果在单独的复制实验中得到了再现。当刺激同源对侧区域时，没有观察到这种改善。本研究为右 DLPFC 区域在错误意识中发挥作用提供了新的证据，并朝着将 tDCS 发展为纠正广泛人群表现监测缺陷的工具迈出了重要一步。
