Luna Fernando G, Román-Caballero Rafael, Barttfeld Pablo, Lupiáñez Juan, Martín-Arévalo Elisa
Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas (IIPsi), CONICET-UNC. Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Boulevard de la Reforma esquina Enfermera Gordillo, CP, 5000, Córdoba, Argentina(1); Department of Experimental Psychology, and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, CP, 18011, Granada, Spain.
Department of Experimental Psychology, and Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja S/N, CP, 18011, Granada, Spain.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 May;142:107447. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107447. Epub 2020 Mar 31.
Attention comprises a wide set of processes such as phasic alertness, orienting, executive control, and the executive (i.e., detecting infrequent targets) and arousal (i.e., sustaining a fast reaction) vigilance components. Importantly, the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over attentional functioning have been mostly addressed by measuring these processes separately and by delivering offline tDCS with low precision over the stimulation region. In the current study, we examined the effects of online High-Definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) over the behavioral and electrophysiological functioning of attentional and vigilance components. Participants (N = 92) were randomly assigned to one of three stimulation groups: right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex stimulation, right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) stimulation, and sham. All of them performed - in combination with the HD-tDCS protocol - an attentional networks task (ANTI-Vea) suitable to measure the executive and arousal components of vigilance along with three typical attentional functions: phasic alertness, orienting, and executive control. In addition, EEG was registered at the baseline and at the post-stimulation period. We observed that, regardless the stimulation region, online HD-tDCS: (a) reduced phasic alertness (p = .008), but did not modulated the orienting and executive control functioning; and (b) mitigated the executive vigilance decrement (p = .011), but did not modulated arousal vigilance across time-on-task. Interestingly, only HD-tDCS over PPC reduced considerably the increment of alpha power observed across time-on-task (p = .009). The current study provides further evidence for both an empirical dissociation between vigilance components and the cortical regions underlying attentional processes. We highlight the advantages of using online HD-tDCS to examine the stimulation effects on attentional and vigilance functioning.
注意包括一系列广泛的过程，如相位警觉、定向、执行控制，以及执行（即检测罕见目标）和觉醒（即维持快速反应）警觉成分。重要的是，经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）对注意力功能的影响大多是通过分别测量这些过程以及在刺激区域以低精度进行离线tDCS来解决的。在本研究中，我们研究了在线高清tDCS（HD-tDCS）对注意力和警觉成分的行为及电生理功能的影响。参与者（N = 92）被随机分配到三个刺激组之一：右侧背外侧前额叶皮层刺激组、右侧顶叶后皮层（PPC）刺激组和假刺激组。他们所有人都结合HD-tDCS方案执行了一项注意力网络任务（ANTI-Vea），该任务适合测量警觉的执行和觉醒成分以及三种典型的注意力功能：相位警觉、定向和执行控制。此外，在基线期和刺激后阶段记录脑电图。我们观察到，无论刺激区域如何，在线HD-tDCS：（a）降低了相位警觉（p = .008），但未调节定向和执行控制功能；（b）减轻了执行警觉的下降（p = .011），但在任务进行过程中未调节觉醒警觉。有趣的是，只有对PPC进行的HD-tDCS显著降低了在任务进行过程中观察到的α波功率增加（p = .009）。本研究为警觉成分与注意力过程背后的皮层区域之间的实证分离提供了进一步的证据。我们强调了使用在线HD-tDCS来研究刺激对注意力和警觉功能影响的优势。
