The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America.
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, New York, New York, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 7;19(6):e0300779. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300779. eCollection 2024.
Neuroimaging studies have shown that activity in the prefrontal cortex correlates with two critical aspects of normal memory functioning: retrieval of episodic memories and subjective "feelings-of-knowing" about our memory. Brain stimulation can be used to test the causal role of the prefrontal cortex in these processes, and whether the role differs for the left versus right prefrontal cortex. We compared the effects of online High-Definition transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) over the left or right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) compared to sham during a proverb-name associative memory and feeling-of-knowing task. There were no significant effects of HD-tDCS on either associative recognition or feeling-of-knowing performance, with Bayesian analyses showing moderate support for the null hypotheses. Despite past work showing effects of HD-tDCS on other memory and feeling-of-knowing tasks, and neuroimaging showing effects with similar tasks, these findings add to the literature of non-significant effects with tDCS. This work highlights the need to better understand factors that determine the effectiveness of tDCS, especially if tDCS is to have a successful future as a clinical intervention.
神经影像学研究表明，前额叶皮层的活动与正常记忆功能的两个关键方面相关：情景记忆的提取和我们对记忆的主观“知晓感”。脑刺激可用于测试前额叶皮层在这些过程中的因果作用，以及左前额叶皮层与右前额叶皮层的作用是否不同。我们比较了在谚语-名称联想记忆和知晓感任务期间，在线经颅直流电刺激（HD-tDCS）对左侧或右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）与假刺激的影响。HD-tDCS 对联想识别或知晓感表现均无显著影响，贝叶斯分析为零假设提供了中等程度的支持。尽管过去的工作表明 HD-tDCS 对其他记忆和知晓感任务有影响，神经影像学也表明类似任务有影响，但这些发现增加了 tDCS 无显著效果的文献。这项工作强调了需要更好地理解决定 tDCS 有效性的因素，特别是如果 tDCS 要作为一种临床干预取得成功的话。
