Effects of five daily high-frequency rTMS on Stroop task performance in aging individuals

Abstract

Previous evidence suggests that high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) improves inhibitory control in healthy young adults. Little is known as to whether HF-rTMS would show similar facilitation effects in older adults undergoing normal aging. We recruited 16 healthy elderly adults and randomly assigned them to either a 10 Hz HF-rTMS or sham stimulation group. Five daily stimulation sessions over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were given to each participant. Changes in inhibitory control were assessed using a modified Stroop task. Participants performed the Stroop task twice, 1 day before and after the five daily stimulations. We found that participants in the active HF-rTMS stimulation group showed improved performance in reaction time during incongruent trials (i.e. those with distracting information) after HF-rTMS treatment compared with pre-treatment trials. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first studies demonstrating that daily HF-rTMS can improve attentional control in normally aging individuals.