Qiao Jingwen, Li Xinyu, Wang Youhao, Wang Yifeng, Li Gen, Lu Ping, Wang Shouyan
Academy for Engineering and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Electronic Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Mar 30;14:879006. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.879006. eCollection 2022.
The vigilance fluctuation and decrement of sustained attention have large detrimental consequences to most tasks in daily life, especially among the elderly. Non-invasive brain stimulations (e.g., transcranial direct current stimulation, tDCS) have been widely applied to improve sustained attention, however, with mixed results.
An infraslow frequency oscillatory tDCS approach was designed to improve sustained attention.
The infraslow frequency oscillatory tDCS (O-tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex at 0.05 Hz was designed and compared with conventional tDCS (C-tDCS) to test whether this new protocol improves sustained attention more effectively. The sustained attention was evaluated by reaction time and accuracy.
Compared with the C-tDCS and sham, the O-tDCS significantly enhanced sustained attention by increasing response accuracy, reducing response time, and its variability. These effects were predicted by the evoked oscillation of response time at the stimulation frequency.
Similar to previous studies, the modulation effect of C-tDCS on sustained attention is weak and unstable. In contrast, the O-tDCS effectively and systematically enhances sustained attention by optimizing vigilance fluctuation. The modulation effect of O-tDCS is probably driven by neural oscillations at the infraslow frequency range.
警觉性波动和持续注意力下降对日常生活中的大多数任务都有很大的不利影响，尤其是在老年人中。非侵入性脑刺激（如经颅直流电刺激，tDCS）已被广泛应用于改善持续注意力，然而，结果不一。
设计一种超低频振荡tDCS方法来改善持续注意力。
设计了0.05Hz频率下对左侧背外侧前额叶皮层的超低频振荡tDCS（O-tDCS），并与传统tDCS（C-tDCS）进行比较，以测试这种新方案是否能更有效地改善持续注意力。通过反应时间和准确性来评估持续注意力。
与C-tDCS和假刺激相比，O-tDCS通过提高反应准确性、缩短反应时间及其变异性，显著增强了持续注意力。这些效应可由刺激频率下反应时间的诱发振荡预测。
与先前的研究类似，C-tDCS对持续注意力的调节作用微弱且不稳定。相比之下，O-tDCS通过优化警觉性波动有效且系统地增强了持续注意力。O-tDCS的调节作用可能由超低频范围内的神经振荡驱动。
