Enhancing spatiotactile working memory by focalized transcranial direct current stimulation

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Working memory (WM) is a core cognitive function, enabling goal-directed flexible and adaptive behavior by maintaining and manipulating relevant contextual and motivational information. Impairment and decline in WM abilities are often found in advanced age and play an important role in various neurological and psychiatric disorders. Within the project, focalized anodal direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left posterior parietal cortex is applied to investigate stimulation effects on task performance, conventional fMRI and network analyses as well as using multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) as a novel marker for tDCS effects in a well-established tactospatial WM task. This project addresses fundamental neuroscientific questions on tactospatial WM encoding by causal intervention which might allow to develop novel tools for selective WM enhancement and therapeutic treatment of WM deficits. Within the broader context of the Research Unit, the present study is one of eight projects investigating tDCS effects on learning and memory formation across functional domains (Projects 1-8) and the healthy human lifespan. The highly systematic and coordinated approach pursued by these empirical projects will allow for the first time analyzing the underlying neural mechanisms and predictors of behavioural stimulation response not only within each project, but also across the different tasks and functional domains (in Project 9).The current project will contribute unique information on how tDCS influences tactospatial working memory, thereby complementing the investigation of tDCS-induced enhancement of spatial episodic memory formation in Project 1 (PI Flöel). Comparison with results from P4, that uses a verbal working memory paradigm (PI Hartwigsen), will allow to investigate the domain specificity of outcomes. From a methodological point of view, data acquired in these projects will contribute to optimizing and validating biophysical models of current flow (in P9+10), thereby advancing future experimental and translational applications of tDCS in health and disease.