School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2031, NSW, Australia.
Black Dog Institute, Sydney 2031, NSW, Australia.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2019 Oct;25(9):972-984. doi: 10.1017/S1355617719000766. Epub 2019 Aug 9.
Noninvasive brain stimulation methods, including high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) and theta burst stimulation (TBS) have emerged as novel tools to modulate and explore brain function. However, the relative efficacy of these newer stimulation approaches for modulating cognitive functioning remains unclear. This study investigated the cognitive effects of HD-tDCS, intermittent TBS (iTBS) and prolonged continuous TBS (ProcTBS) and explored the potential of these approaches for modulating hypothesized functions of the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC).
Twenty-two healthy volunteers attended four experimental sessions in a cross-over experimental design. In each session, participants either received HD-tDCS, iTBS, ProcTBS or sham, and completed cognitive tasks, including a divided attention task, a working memory maintenance task and an attention task (emotional Stroop test).
The results showed that compared to sham, HD-tDCS, iTBS and ProcTBS caused significantly faster response times on the emotional Stroop task. The effect size (Cohen's d) was d = .32 for iTBS (p < .001), .21 for ProcTBS (p = .01) and .15 for HD-tDCS (p = .044). However, for the performance on the divided attention and working memory maintenance tasks, no significant effect of stimulation was found.
The results suggest that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation techniques, including TBS, may have greater efficacy for modulating cognition compared with HD-tDCS, and extend existing knowledge about specific functions of the left PPC.
包括高清晰度经颅直流电刺激（HD-tDCS）和θ爆发刺激（TBS）在内的非侵入性脑刺激方法已成为调节和探索大脑功能的新工具。然而，这些较新的刺激方法调节认知功能的相对效果尚不清楚。本研究调查了 HD-tDCS、间歇性 TBS（iTBS）和持续 TBS（ProcTBS）的认知效应，并探讨了这些方法调节左后顶叶皮层（PPC）假设功能的潜力。
22 名健康志愿者在交叉实验设计中参加了四个实验。在每个实验中，参与者要么接受 HD-tDCS、iTBS、ProcTBS 或假刺激，并完成认知任务，包括分心任务、工作记忆维持任务和注意力任务（情绪斯特鲁普测试）。
结果表明，与假刺激相比，HD-tDCS、iTBS 和 ProcTBS 使情绪斯特鲁普测试的反应时间明显加快。刺激的效应大小（Cohen's d）为 iTBS 为 d =.32（p <.001），ProcTBS 为 d =.21（p =.01），HD-tDCS 为 d =.15（p =.044）。然而，对于分心任务和工作记忆维持任务的表现，没有发现刺激的显著效果。
结果表明，重复经颅磁刺激技术，包括 TBS，可能比 HD-tDCS 更有效地调节认知，并且扩展了关于左 PPC 特定功能的现有知识。
