Cespón Jesús, Rodella Claudia, Rossini Paolo M, Miniussi Carlo, Pellicciari Maria C
Cognitive Neuroscience Section, Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Centro San Giovanni di Dio Fatebenefratelli, Brescia, Italy.
Institute of Neurology, Policlinico A. Gemelli, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2017 Dec 18;9:420. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00420. eCollection 2017.
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 (-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.
最近的研究表明，经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）在改善工作记忆方面可能具有潜在作用。在本研究中，年轻和老年受试者在接受左侧背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）阳极、阴极和假tDCS前后的脑电图记录期间执行工作记忆任务（n-back任务）。我们研究了行为表现的调节以及工作记忆过程的电生理相关性（额叶和顶叶P300事件相关电位）。在应用tDCS后观察到了调节工作记忆表现的强烈趋势。具体而言，年轻受试者（而非老年受试者）在无真正tDCS的情况下通过额外练习受益，假tDCS后他们的反应更准确即表明了这一点。阴极tDCS对任何一组参与者均无影响。重要的是，阳极tDCS提高了老年人的准确性。此外，阳极tDCS后准确性的提高与更大的额叶P300波幅相关。这些发现表明，在老年受试者中，在左侧DLPFC应用阳极tDCS后工作记忆的改善可能与促进额叶代偿机制有关，而额叶代偿机制与注意力过程相关。
