Does transcranial direct current stimulation improve healthy working memory?: A meta-analytic review

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Volumn 28, Issue 8, 2016, Pages 1063-1089

  Mancuso, Lauren Elizabeth ^a   Ilieva, Irena P ^b   Hamilton, Roy H ^a   Farah, Martha J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA   (United States)

^b WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DORSOLATERAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX; HUMAN; LANGUAGE; MEDLINE; META ANALYSIS; PARIETAL LOBE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; PSYCINFO; PUBLISHING; REVIEW; SYSTEMATIC REVIEW; TASK PERFORMANCE; TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION; WORKING MEMORY; PHYSIOLOGY; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; SHORT TERM MEMORY;

HUMANS; MEMORY, SHORT-TERM; PREFRONTAL CORTEX; TRANSCRANIAL DIRECT CURRENT STIMULATION;

EID: 84975783174     PISSN: 0898929X     EISSN: 15308898     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00956     Document Type: Review

References (67)

1. Andrews, S. C., Hoy, K. E., Enticott, P. G., Daskalakis, Z. J., & Fitzgerald, P. B. (2010). Improving working memory: The effect of combining cognitive activity and anodal transcranial direct current stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Brain Stimulation, 4, 84-89.
2. Batsikadze, G., Moliadze, V., Paulus, W., Kuo, M. F., & Nitsche, M. A. (2013). Partially non linear stimulation intensity dependent effects of direct current stimulation on motor cortex excitability in humans. Journal of Physiology, 591, 1987-2000.
3. Batuman, E. (2015, April). Electrified: Adventures in transcranial direct-current stimulation. The New Yorker. Retrieved from www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/electrified.
4. Berryhill, M. E., & Jones, K. T. (2012). tDCS selectively improves working memory in older adults with more education. Neuroscience Letters, 521, 148-151.
5. Berryhill, M. E., Peterson, D. J., Jones, K. T., & Stephens, J. A. (2014). Hits and misses: Leveraging tDCS to advance cognitive research. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 800.
6. Berryhill, M. E., Wencil, E. B., Coslett, B. H., & Olson, I. R. (2010). A selective working memory impairment after transcranial direct current stimulation to the right parietal lobe. Neuroscience Letters, 479, 312-316.
7. Bona, S., & Silvanto, J. (2014). Accuracy and confidence of visual short-term memory do not go hand-in-hand: Behavioral and neural dissociations. PLoS One, 9, e90808.
8. Braver, T. S., Cohen, J. D., Nystrom, L. E., Jonides, J., Smith, E. E., & Noll, D. C. (1997). A parametric study of prefrontal cortex involvement in human working memory. Neuroimage, 5, 49-62.
9. Brunoni, A. R., & Vanderhasselt, M. A. (2014). Working memory improvement with non-invasive brain stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Brain and Cognition, 86, 1-9.
10. Carlson, S., Martinkauppi, S., Rämä, P., Salli, E., Korvenoja, A., & Aronen, H. J. (1998). Distribution of cortical activation during visuospatial n-back tasks as revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cerebral Cortex, 8, 743-752.
11. Carpenter, P. A., Just, M. A., & Reichle, E. D. (2000). Working memory and executive function: Evidence from neuroimaging. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 10, 195-199.
12. Chhatbar, P. Y., & Feng, W. (2015). Data synthesis in meta-analysis may conclude differently on cognitive effect from transcranial direct current stimulation. Brain Stimulation, 8, 974-976.
13. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
14. Cooper, H. (2010). Research synthesis and meta-analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
15. Dunlap, W. P., Cortina, J. M., Vaslow, J. B., & Burke, M. J. (1996). Meta-analysis of experiments with matched groups or repeated measures designs. Psychological Methods, 1, 170-177.
16. Engle, R. W., Tuholski, S. W., Laughlin, J. E., & Conway, A. R. (1999). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent-variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128, 309-331.
17. Fregni, F., Boggio, P. S., Nitsche, M., Bermpohl, F., Antal, A., Feredoes, E., et al. (2005). Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex enhances working memory. Experimental Brain Research, 166, 23-30.
18. Gill, J., Shah-Basak, P. P., & Hamilton, R. H. (2015). It's the thought that counts: Examining the task-dependent effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on executive function. Brain Stimulation, 8, 253-259.
19. Gladwin, T. E., den Uyl, T. E., Fregni, F. F., & Wiers, R. W. (2012). Enhancement of selective attention by tDCS: Interaction with interference in a Sternberg task. Neuroscience Letters, 512, 33-37.
20. Hedges, L. V. (1981). Distribution theory for Glass's estimator of effect size and related estimators. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 6, 107-128.
21. Hill, A. T., Fitzgerald, P. B., & Hoy, K. E. (2016). Effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory: A systematic review and meta-analysis of findings from healthy and neuropsychiatric populations. Brain Stimulation, 9, 197-208.
22. Horvath, J. C. (2015). New quantitative analyses following Price & Hamilton's critique do not change original findings of Horvath et al. Brain Stimulation, 8, 665.
23. Horvath, J. C., Forte, J. D., & Carter, O. (2015). Quantitative review finds no evidence of cognitive effects in healthy populations from single-session transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Brain Stimulation, 8, 535-550.
24. Hoy, K. E., Emonson, M. R. L., Arnold, S. L., Thomson, R. H., Daskalakis, Z. J., & Fitzgerald, P. B. (2013). Testing the limits: Investigating the effect of tDCS dose on working memory enhancement in healthy controls. Neuropsychologia, 51, 1777-1784.
25. Hsu, T. Y., Tseng, P., Liang, W. K., Cheng, S. K., & Juan, C. H. (2014). Transcranial direct current stimulation over right posterior parietal cortex changes prestimulus alpha oscillation in visual short-term memory task. Neuroimage, 98, 306-313.
26. Ilieva, I. P., Hook, C. J., & Farah, M. J. (2015). Prescription stimulants' effects on healthy inhibitory control, working memory, and episodic memory: A meta-analysis. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27, 1069-1089.
27. Ioannidis, J. P. A. (2005). Why most published research findings are false. PLoS Medicine, 2, 696-701.
28. Jacobson, L., Koslowsky, M., & Lavidor, M. (2012). tDCS polarity effects in motor and cognitive domains: A meta-analytical review. Experimental Brain Research, 216, 1-10.
29. Jeon, S. Y., & Han, S. J. (2012). Improvement of the working memory and naming by transcranial direct current stimulation. Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine, 36, 585-595.
30. Jones, K. T., & Berryhill, M. E. (2012). Parietal contributions to visual working memory depend on task difficulty. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 3, 81.
31. Jones, K. T., Gözenman, F., & Berryhill, M. E. (2015). The strategy and motivational influences on the beneficial effect of neurostimulation: A tDCS and fNIRS study. Neuroimage, 105, 238-247.
32. Jwa, A. (2015). Early adopters of the magical thinking cap: A study on do-it-yourself (DIY) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) user community. Journal of Law and the Biosciences, 2, 292-335.
33. Keeser, D., Padberg, F., Reisinger, E., Pogarell, O., Kirsch, V., Palm, U., et al. (2011). Prefrontal direct current stimulation modulates resting EEG and event-related potentials in healthy subjects: A standardized low resolution tomography (sLORETA) study. Neuroimage, 55, 644-657.
34. Keshvari, F., Pouretemad, H. R., & Ekhtiari, H. (2013). The polarity-dependent effects of the bilateral brain stimulation on working memory. Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, 4, 224-231.
35. Lally, N., Nord, C. L., Walsh, V., & Roiser, J. P. (2013). Does excitatory fronto-extracerebral tDCS lead to improved working memory performance? F1000Research, 2, 219.
36. Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (2001). Practical meta-analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
37. Martin, D. M., Liu, R., Alonzo, A., Green, M., Player, M. J., Sachdev, P., et al. (2013). Can transcranial direct current stimulation enhance outcomes from cognitive training? A randomized controlled trial in healthy participants. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 16, 1927-1936.
38. Meiron, O., & Lavidor, M. (2013). Unilateral prefrontal direct current stimulation effects are modulated by working memory load and gender. Brain Stimulation, 6, 440-447.
39. Melby-Lervåg, M., & Hulme, C. (2013). Is working memory training effective? A meta-analytic review. Developmental Psychology, 49, 270-291.
40. Mulquiney, P. G., Hoy, K. E., Daskalakis, Z. J., & Fitzgerald, P. B. (2011). Improving working memory: Exploring the effect of transcranial random noise stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Clinical Neurophysiology, 122, 2384-2389.
41. Mylius, V., Jung, M., Menzler, K., Haag, A., Khader, P. H., Oertel, W. H., et al. (2012). Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on pain perception and working memory. European Journal of Pain, 16, 974-982.
42. Nikolin, S., Loo, C. K., Bai, S., Dokos, S., & Martin, D. M. (2015). Focalised stimulation using high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to investigate declarative verbal learning and memory functioning. Neuroimage, 117, 11-19.
43. Nitsche, M. A., Bikson, M., & Bestmann, S. (2015). On the use of meta-analysis in neuromodulatory non-invasive brain stimulation. Brain Stimulation, 8, 666-667.
44. Nitsche, M. A., Cohen, L. G., Wassermann, E. M., Priori, A., Lang, N., Antal, A., et al. (2008). Transcranial direct current stimulation: State of the art 2008. Brain Stimulation, 1, 206-223.
45. Nitsche, M. A., & Paulus, W. (2000). Excitability changes induced in the human motor cortex by weak transcranial direct current stimulation. Journal of Physiology, 527, 633-639.
46. Nozari, N., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2013). More attention when speaking: Does it help or does it hurt? Neuropsychologia, 51, 2770-2780.
47. Ohn, S. H., Park, C. I., Yoo, W. K., Ko, M. H., Choi, K. P., Kim, G. M., et al. (2008). Time-dependent effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on the enhancement of working memory. NeuroReport, 19, 43-47.
48. Park, S. H., Seo, J. H., Kim, Y. H., & Ko, M. H. (2014). Long-term effects of transcranial direct current stimulation combined with computer-assisted cognitive training in healthy older adults. NeuroReport, 25, 122-126.
49. Price, A. R., & Hamilton, R. H. (2015). A re-evaluation of the cognitive effects from single-session transcranial direct current stimulation. Brain Stimulation, 8, 663-665.
50. Price, A. R., McAdams, H., Grossman, M., & Hamilton, R. H. (2015). A meta-analysis of transcranial direct current stimulation studies examining the reliability of effects on language measures. Brain Stimulation, 8, 1093-1100.
51. Priori, A. (2003). Brain polarization in humans: A reappraisal of an old tool for prolonged non-invasive modulation of brain excitability. Clinical Neurophysiology, 114, 589-595.
52. Ragland, J. D., Turetsky, B. I., Gur, R. C., Gunning-Dixon, F., Turner, T., Schroeder, L., et al. (2002). Working memory for complex figures: An fMRI comparison of letter and fractal n-back tasks. Neuropsychology, 16, 370-379.
53. Richmond, L. L., Wolk, D., Chein, J., & Olson, I. R. (2014). Transcranial direct current stimulation enhances verbal working memory training performance over time and near transfer outcomes. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26, 2443-2454.
54. Rosenthal, R., & Rubin, D. B. (1986). Meta-analytic procedures for combining studies with multiple effect sizes. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 400-406.
55. Rothstein, H. R., Sutton, A. J., & Borenstein, M. (2006). Publication bias in meta-analysis: Prevention, assessment and adjustments. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
56. Sandrini, M., Fertonani, A., Cohen, L. G., & Miniussi, C. (2011). Double dissociation of working memory load effects induced by bilateral parietal modulation. Neuropsychologia, 50, 396-402.
57. Santarnecchi, E., Brem, A. K., Levenbaum, E., Thompson, T., Kadosh, R. C., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2015). Enhancing cognition using transcranial electrical stimulation. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 4, 171-178.
58. Smith, E. E. (2001). Working memory. In R. Wilson & F. Keil (Eds.), The MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
59. Stagg, C. J. (2014). The physiological basis of brain stimulation. In R. Cohen Kadosh (Ed.), The stimulated brain: Cognitive enhancement using non-invasive brain stimulation (pp. 145-177). London: Academic Press.
60. Sternberg, S. (1998). Inferring mental operations from reaction time data. In D. Scarborough & S. Sternberg (Eds.), Invitation to cognitive science (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
61. Tadini, L., El-Nazer, R., Brunoni, A. R., Williams, J., Carvas, M., Boggio, P., et al. (2011). Cognitive, mood, and electroencephalographic effects of noninvasive cortical stimulation with weak electrical currents. Journal of ECT, 27, 134-140.
62. Teo, F., Hoy, K. E., Daskalakis, Z. J., & Fitzgerald, P. B. (2011). Investigating the role of current strength in tDCS modulation of working memory performance in healthy controls. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2, 45.
63. Tseng, P., Hsu, T. Y., Chang, C. F., Tzeng, O. J. L., Hung, D. L., Muggleton, N. G., et al. (2012). Unleashing potential: Transcranial direct current stimulation over the right posterior parietal cortex improves change detection in low-performing individuals. Journal of Neuroscience, 32, 10554-10561.
64. Vanderhasselt, M. A., Brunoni, A. R., Loeys, T., Boggio, P. S., & De Raedt, R. (2013). Nosce te ipsum-Socrates revisited? Controlling momentary ruminative self-referent thoughts by neuromodulation of emotional working memory. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2581-2589.
65. Wiley, J., & Jarosz, A. F. (2012). Working memory capacity, attentional focus, and problem solving. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 258-262.
66. Wolkenstein, L., & Plewnia, C. (2012). Amelioration of cognitive control in depression by transcranial direct current stimulation. Biological Psychiatry, 73, 646-651.
67. Wu, Y. J., Tseng, P., Chang, C. F., Pai, M. C., Hsu, K. S., Lin, C. C., et al. (2014). Modulating the interference effect on spatial working memory by applying transcranial direct current stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Brain and Cognition, 91, 87-94.