Abstract
Altering cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to improve working memory (WM) performance. Due to large inter-experimental variability in the tDCS montage configuration and strength of induced electric fields, results have been mixed. Here, we present a novel meta-analytic method relating behavioral effect sizes to electric field strength to identify brain regions underlying largest tDCS-induced WM improvement. Simulations on 69 studies targeting left prefrontal cortex showed that tDCS electric field strength in lower dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) relates most strongly to improved WM performance. This region explained 7.8 % of variance, equaling a medium effect. A similar region was identified when correlating WM performance and electric field strength of right prefrontal tDCS studies (n = 18). Maximum electric field strength of five previously used tDCS configurations were outside of this location. We thus propose a new tDCS montage which maximizes the tDCS electric field strength in that brain region. Our findings can benefit future tDCS studies that aim to affect WM function.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 147-161 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews |
Volume | 130 |
Early online date | Aug 18 2021 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Research presented here was supported by the University of Minnesota’s MnDRIVE Initiative and National Institutes of Health RF1MH117428 .
Funding Information:
Research presented here was supported by the University of Minnesota's MnDRIVE Initiative and National Institutes of HealthRF1MH117428.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Electric field modeling
- Neuromodulation
- Prefrontal cortex
- Transcranial direct current stimulation
- Working memory