The effect of tDCS electrode montage on attention and working memory

Donel M Martin; Jacqueline A Rushby; Frances M De Blasio; Travis Wearne; Katherine Osborne-Crowley; Heather Francis; Mei Xu; Colleen Loo; Skye McDonald

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108462

The effect of tDCS electrode montage on attention and working memory

Neuropsychologia. 2023 Jan 28:179:108462. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108462. Epub 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Donel M Martin¹, Jacqueline A Rushby², Frances M De Blasio², Travis Wearne², Katherine Osborne-Crowley², Heather Francis², Mei Xu³, Colleen Loo³, Skye McDonald²

Affiliations

¹ Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2502, Australia; Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia. Electronic address: donel.martin@unsw.edu.au.
² School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2502, Australia.
³ Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2502, Australia; Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2031, Australia.

PMID: 36563998
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108462

Abstract

The effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for improving attention and working memory have been generally mixed and small, potentially due to variability between studies with montages, stimulus parameters and outcome measures. The tDCS montage is an important parameter which determines the degree and intensity of stimulation in targeted brain regions. This study aimed to examine the effects of using three different montages for modulating attention and working memory performance: Bi-frontal, Broad-frontal and Broad-parietal. Ninety-three healthy adults participated in a counterbalanced cross-over study. Participants received both active and sham tDCS with either the Bi-frontal, Broad-frontal or Broad-parietal montage during performance of both a 1- and 2-back task. TDCS montage moderated 2-back working memory reaction time performance, though not accuracy, with faster reaction times observed for active compared to sham tDCS with the Broad-frontal montage only (F (1,90) = 5.26, p = .024, η² = 0.06). TDCS montage did not significantly moderate performance on the 1-back task. The cognitive effects of tDCS varied according to montage, task, and outcome measure. TDCS administered with the cathode placed extracephalically in a Broad-frontal montage may be beneficial for improving working memory.

Keywords: Attention; N-back; Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); Working-memory.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Attention / physiology
Cross-Over Studies
Electrodes
Humans
Memory, Short-Term / physiology
Prefrontal Cortex / physiology
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation*