Dataset Information

Language and Memory Improvements following tDCS of Left Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

ABSTRACT: Recent research demonstrates that performance on executive-control measures can be enhanced through brain stimulation of lateral prefrontal regions. Separate psycholinguistic work emphasizes the importance of left lateral prefrontal cortex executive-control resources during sentence processing, especially when readers must override early, incorrect interpretations when faced with temporary ambiguity. Using transcranial direct current stimulation, we tested whether stimulation of left lateral prefrontal cortex had discriminate effects on language and memory conditions that rely on executive-control (versus cases with minimal executive-control demands, even in the face of task difficulty). Participants were randomly assigned to receive Anodal, Cathodal, or Sham stimulation of left lateral prefrontal cortex while they (1) processed ambiguous and unambiguous sentences in a word-by-word self-paced reading task and (2) performed an n-back memory task that, on some trials, contained interference lure items reputed to require executive-control. Across both tasks, we parametrically manipulated executive-control demands and task difficulty. Our results revealed that the Anodal group outperformed the remaining groups on (1) the sentence processing conditions requiring executive-control, and (2) only the most complex n-back conditions, regardless of executive-control demands. Together, these findings add to the mounting evidence for the selective causal role of left lateral prefrontal cortex for executive-control tasks in the language domain. Moreover, we provide the first evidence suggesting that brain stimulation is a promising method to mitigate processing demands encountered during online sentence processing.

SUBMITTER: Hussey EK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4631603 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Language and Memory Improvements following tDCS of Left Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

Hussey Erika K EK Ward Nathan N Christianson Kiel K Kramer Arthur F AF

PloS one 20151103 11

Recent research demonstrates that performance on executive-control measures can be enhanced through brain stimulation of lateral prefrontal regions. Separate psycholinguistic work emphasizes the importance of left lateral prefrontal cortex executive-control resources during sentence processing, especially when readers must override early, incorrect interpretations when faced with temporary ambiguity. Using transcranial direct current stimulation, we tested whether stimulation of left lateral pre ...[more]

PMID: 26528814

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Project description:Working memory is essential for many of our distinctly human abilities, including reasoning, problem solving, and planning. Research spanning many decades has helped to refine our understanding of this high-level function as comprising several hierarchically organized components, some which maintain information in the conscious mind, and others which manipulate and reorganize this information in useful ways. In the neocortex, these processes are likely implemented by a distributed frontoparietal network, with more posterior regions serving to maintain volatile information, and more anterior regions subserving the manipulation of this information. Recent meta-analytic findings have identified the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex, in particular, as being generally engaged by working memory tasks, while the posterior lateral prefrontal cortex was more strongly associated with the cognitive load required by these tasks. These findings suggest specific roles for these regions in the cognitive control processes underlying working memory. To further characterize these regions, we applied three distinct seed-based methods for determining cortical connectivity. Specifically, we employed meta-analytic connectivity mapping across task-based fMRI experiments, resting-state BOLD correlations, and VBM-based structural covariance. We found a frontoparietal pattern of convergence which strongly resembled the working memory networks identified in previous research. A contrast between anterior and posterior parts of the lateral prefrontal cortex revealed distinct connectivity patterns consistent with the idea of a hierarchical organization of frontoparietal networks. Moreover, we found a distributed network that was anticorrelated with the anterior seed region, which included most of the default mode network and a subcomponent related to social and emotional processing. These findings fit well with the internal attention model of working memory, in which representation of information is processed according to an anteroposterior gradient of abstract-to-concrete representations.

Project description:BackgroundTreating memory and cognitive deficits requires knowledge about anatomical sites and neural activities to be targeted with particular therapies. Emerging technologies for local brain stimulation offer attractive therapeutic options but need to be applied to target specific neural activities, at distinct times, and in specific brain regions that are critical for memory formation.MethodsThe areas that are critical for successful encoding of verbal memory as well as the underlying neural activities were determined directly in the human brain with intracranial electrophysiological recordings in epilepsy patients. We recorded a broad range of spectral activities across the cortex of 135 patients as they memorised word lists for subsequent free recall.FindingsThe greatest differences in the spectral power between encoding subsequently recalled and forgotten words were found in low theta frequency (3-5 Hz) activities of the left anterior prefrontal cortex. This subsequent memory effect was proportionally greater in the lower frequency bands and in the more anterior cortical regions. We found the peak of this memory signal in a distinct part of the prefrontal cortex at the junction between the Broca's area and the frontal pole. The memory effect in this confined area was significantly higher (Tukey-Kramer test, p<0.05) than in other anatomically distinct areas.InterpretationOur results suggest a focal hotspot of human verbal memory encoding located in the higher-order processing region of the prefrontal cortex, which presents a prospective target for modulating cognitive functions in the human patients. The memory effect provides an electrophysiological biomarker of low frequency neural activities, at distinct times of memory encoding, and in one hotspot location in the human brain.FundingOpen-access datasets were originally collected as part of a BRAIN Initiative project called Restoring Active Memory (RAM) funded by the Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). CT, ML, MTK and this research were supported from the First Team grant of the Foundation for Polish Science co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund.

Project description:Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC), can produce significant effects on working memory (WM) performance and associated neurophysiological activity. However, results from previous studies are inconsistent and occasionally contradictory. This inconsistency may be attributed to methodological and individual differences during experiments. This study therefore investigated two hypotheses: (1) A multichannel-optimized montage was expected to be more effective than a classical bipolar montage, because of increased focality. (2) The subjects were expected to benefit differently from the stimulation depending on their initial task performance. In a sham-controlled crossover study, 24 healthy participants received bipolar, multichannel, and sham stimulation for 20 min in randomized order, targeting the lDLPFC while performing a 2-back WM task. After stimulation, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded at rest and during 2-back and nontarget continuous performance task (CPT) performance. Bipolar and multichannel stimulations were both well tolerated and effectively blinded. We found no effect of stimulation on behavioral performance or neuronal oscillations comparing the classical bipolar or multichannel montage with sham stimulation. We did, however, find an interaction between stimulation and initial task performance. For multichannel stimulation, initially low-performing participants tended to improve their WM performance while initially high-performing participants tended to worsen their performance compared to sham stimulation. Both tDCS montages induced changes in neural oscillatory power, which correlated with baseline performance. The worse the participants' initial WM performance was, the more task-related theta power was induced by multichannel and bipolar stimulation. The same effect was observed for alpha power in the nontarget task following multichannel stimulation. Notably, we were not able to show a superiority of multichannel stimulation compared to bipolar stimulation. Still, comparing both montages with sham stimulation, multichannel stimulation led to stronger effects than bipolar stimulation. The current study highlights the importance of investigating different parameters with potential influence on tDCS effects in combination. Our results demonstrate how individual differences in cognitive performance and electrode montages influence effects of tDCS on neuropsychological performance. These findings support the idea of an individualized and optimized stimulation setting, potentially leading to increased tDCS effects.

Dataset Information

Language and Memory Improvements following tDCS of Left Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

Publications

Language and Memory Improvements following tDCS of Left Lateral Prefrontal Cortex.

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