Enhancing cognitive performance with fronto-parietal transcranial alternating current stimulation

IF 2.9 3区医学 Q1 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Biological Psychology Pub Date : 2025-08-19 DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109111

Qiannong Wan , Sanne Ten Oever , Alexander T. Sack , Teresa Schuhmann

{"title":"Enhancing cognitive performance with fronto-parietal transcranial alternating current stimulation","authors":"Qiannong Wan , Sanne Ten Oever , Alexander T. Sack , Teresa Schuhmann","doi":"10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109111","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Executive cognitive functions are essential for human life, and their age- or disease-related decline significantly impacts quality of life. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) targeting the multiple-demand or fronto-parietal network (FPN) has emerged as a promising intervention for enhancing various executive cognitive functions. However, variations in cognitive tasks and stimulation protocols across studies led to mixed results, rendering findings and conclusions incomparable. In this study, we synchronized oscillations over two main areas of the frontoparietal cognitive network, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC), using high-definition (HD) dual-channel in-phase transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at various stimulation frequencies (6 Hz, 40 Hz, sham). Participants completed a spatial attention task, a 3-back memory task, and a flanker cognitive control task while receiving tACS stimulation. Results revealed that gamma-band (40 Hz) stimulation improved response speed in the spatial attention task among younger participants but impaired response speed in the flanker task. Contrary to our initial expectations, theta-band stimulation did not affect cognition significantly. These findings highlight the specificity of cognitive enhancement through tACS and suggest that optimal stimulation targets may vary across cognitive domains, providing clinical implications for using tACS in treating cognitive deficits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":55372,"journal":{"name":"Biological Psychology","volume":"200 ","pages":"Article 109111"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Biological Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051125001292","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Executive cognitive functions are essential for human life, and their age- or disease-related decline significantly impacts quality of life. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) targeting the multiple-demand or fronto-parietal network (FPN) has emerged as a promising intervention for enhancing various executive cognitive functions. However, variations in cognitive tasks and stimulation protocols across studies led to mixed results, rendering findings and conclusions incomparable. In this study, we synchronized oscillations over two main areas of the frontoparietal cognitive network, right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFC) and right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC), using high-definition (HD) dual-channel in-phase transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) at various stimulation frequencies (6 Hz, 40 Hz, sham). Participants completed a spatial attention task, a 3-back memory task, and a flanker cognitive control task while receiving tACS stimulation. Results revealed that gamma-band (40 Hz) stimulation improved response speed in the spatial attention task among younger participants but impaired response speed in the flanker task. Contrary to our initial expectations, theta-band stimulation did not affect cognition significantly. These findings highlight the specificity of cognitive enhancement through tACS and suggest that optimal stimulation targets may vary across cognitive domains, providing clinical implications for using tACS in treating cognitive deficits.

查看原文本刊更多论文

额顶叶经颅交流电刺激增强认知能力

执行认知功能对人类生活至关重要，其年龄或疾病相关的下降会显著影响生活质量。针对多需求或额顶叶网络（FPN）的非侵入性脑刺激（NIBS）已成为一种有前途的干预措施，可增强各种执行认知功能。然而，不同研究的认知任务和刺激方案的差异导致了不同的结果，使得研究结果和结论无法比较。在这项研究中，我们在不同的刺激频率（6 Hz, 40 Hz，假）下，使用高清（HD）双通道同相经颅交流电刺激（tACS），同步了额顶叶认知网络的两个主要区域，右侧背外侧前额叶皮层（rDLPFC）和右侧后顶叶皮层（rPPC）的振荡。参与者在接受tACS刺激的同时完成了空间注意任务、3-back记忆任务和侧卫认知控制任务。结果表明，40 Hz的伽马波段刺激提高了年轻被试空间注意任务的反应速度，但降低了侧翼任务的反应速度。与我们最初的预期相反，θ波段刺激并没有显著影响认知。这些发现强调了通过tACS增强认知的特异性，并提示最佳刺激目标可能在不同的认知领域有所不同，为使用tACS治疗认知缺陷提供了临床意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Biological Psychology 医学-行为科学

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

11.50%

发文量

146

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Biological Psychology publishes original scientific papers on the biological aspects of psychological states and processes. Biological aspects include electrophysiology and biochemical assessments during psychological experiments as well as biologically induced changes in psychological function. Psychological investigations based on biological theories are also of interest. All aspects of psychological functioning, including psychopathology, are germane. The Journal concentrates on work with human subjects, but may consider work with animal subjects if conceptually related to issues in human biological psychology.