Department of Psychology, Sociology and Politics, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
School of Biomedical Sciences, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
Brain Stimul. 2020 Jan-Feb;13(1):105-108. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2019.08.016. Epub 2019 Aug 31.
Recent evidence suggests that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may interact with the dopaminergic system to affect cognitive flexibility. Objective/hypotheses: We examined whether putative reduction of dopamine levels through the acute phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion (APTD) procedure and excitatory anodal tDCS of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) are causally related to cognitive flexibility as measured by task switching and reversal learning.
A double-blind, sham-controlled, randomised trial was conducted to test the effects of combining anodal tDCS and depletion of catecholaminergic precursor tyrosine on cognitive flexibility.
Anodal tDCS and tyrosine depletion had a significant effect on task switching, but not reversal learning. Whilst perseverative errors were significantly improved by anodal tDCS, the APTD impaired reaction times. Importantly, the combination of APTD and anodal tDCS resulted in cognitive performance which did not statistically differ to that of the control condition.
Our results suggest that the effects of tDCS on cognitive flexibility are modulated by dopaminergic tone.
最近的证据表明,经颅直流电刺激(tDCS)可能与多巴胺能系统相互作用,影响认知灵活性。
目的/假设:我们研究了通过急性苯丙氨酸/酪氨酸耗竭(APTD)程序和外侧前额叶皮层(dlPFC)的兴奋阳极 tDCS 降低多巴胺水平是否与任务转换和反转学习所测量的认知灵活性有关。
进行了一项双盲、假对照、随机试验,以测试阳极 tDCS 和儿茶酚胺前体酪氨酸耗竭对认知灵活性的影响。
阳极 tDCS 和酪氨酸耗竭对任务转换有显著影响,但对反转学习没有影响。虽然阳极 tDCS 显著改善了固执错误,但 APTD 会影响反应时间。重要的是,APTD 和阳极 tDCS 的组合导致认知表现与对照条件没有统计学差异。
我们的结果表明,tDCS 对认知灵活性的影响受多巴胺能色调的调节。