School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Jan;5(1):146-158. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-00979-5. Epub 2020 Oct 26.
Cognitive training and brain stimulation show promise for ameliorating age-related neurocognitive decline. However, evidence for this is controversial. In a Registered Report, we investigated the effects of these interventions, where 133 older adults were allocated to four groups (left prefrontal cortex anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with decision-making training, and three control groups) and trained over 5 days. They completed a task/questionnaire battery pre- and post-training, and at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. COMT and BDNF Val/Met polymorphisms were also assessed. Contrary to work in younger adults, there was evidence against tDCS-induced training enhancement on the decision-making task. Moreover, there was evidence against transfer of training gains to untrained tasks or everyday function measures at any post-intervention time points. As indicated by exploratory work, individual differences may have influenced outcomes. But, overall, the current decision-making training and tDCS protocol appears unlikely to lead to benefits for older adults.
认知训练和脑刺激在改善与年龄相关的神经认知衰退方面显示出前景。然而，这方面的证据存在争议。在一份注册报告中，我们调查了这些干预措施的效果，其中 133 名老年人被分配到四个组（左前额叶皮层阳极经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）与决策训练，以及三个对照组），并在 5 天内接受训练。他们在训练前、训练后以及 1 个月和 3 个月的随访中完成了任务/问卷测试。还评估了 COMT 和 BDNF Val/Met 多态性。与年轻成年人的研究结果相反，有证据表明 tDCS 诱导的决策任务训练增强效果不佳。此外，在任何干预后时间点，都没有证据表明训练收益可以转移到未训练的任务或日常功能测量中。正如探索性工作所表明的，个体差异可能影响了结果。但是，总的来说，目前的决策训练和 tDCS 方案似乎不太可能给老年人带来益处。
