tDCS selectively improves working memory in older adults with more education
tDCS selectively improves working memory in older adults with more education
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neulet.2012.05.074
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发表时间：
2012-07-19
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Jones, Kevin T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Berryhill, Marian E.;Jones, Kevin T.
认知表现，包括工作记忆(WM)任务的表现，随着年龄的增长而下降。大脑活动的变化被认为是健康老龄化人口中WM下降的一个推定因素。特别是，神经成像研究表明，当老年人执行WM任务时，往往比年轻人有更多的双侧额叶活动。我们假设，刺激健康老年人的前额叶皮质会改善WM表现。为了验证这一假设，我们采用了经颅直流电刺激(Tdcs)，这是一种神经刺激技术，将少量电流施加到头皮上，目的是调节潜在神经元的活动。在三个测试过程中，我们在健康老年人的左侧(F3)或右侧(F4)前额叶皮质施加假刺激或阳极TDC，同时进行口头和视觉2-back WM任务的试验。令人惊讶的是，tDC在站点和WM任务中都是一致有益的，但只有在受过更多教育的老年人中才是有益的。在受教育程度较低的人群中，tDCs对口头或视觉的工作记忆成绩没有好处。我们将这些发现解释为当老年人执行WM任务时，不同的前额招募是策略的一种功能的证据。(C)2012爱思唯尔爱尔兰有限公司。保留所有权利。
Cognitive performance, including performance on working memory (WM) tasks declines with age. Changes in brain activations are one presumed contributor to WM decline in the healthy aging population. In particular, neuroimaging studies show that when older adults perform WM tasks there tends to be greater bilateral frontal activity than in younger adults. We hypothesized that stimulating the prefrontal cortex in healthy older adults would improve WM performance. To test this hypothesis we employed transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a neurostimulation technique in which small amounts of electrical current are applied to the scalp with the intent of modulating the activity in underlying neurons. Across three testing sessions we applied sham stimulation or anodal tDCS to the left (F3) or right (F4) prefrontal cortex to healthy older adults as they performed trials of verbal and visual 2-back WM tasks. Surprisingly, tDCS was uniformly beneficial across site and WM task, but only in older adults with more education. In the less educated group, tDCS provided no benefit to verbal or visual WM performance. We interpret these findings as evidence for differential frontal recruitment as a function of strategy when older adults perform WM tasks. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.