Bilateral Bi-Cephalic Tdcs with Two Active Electrodes of the Same Polarity Modulates Bilateral Cognitive Processes Differentially

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0071607
• Publication Date: 2013-08-08T17:11:16Z
• Authors: Elise Klein; Anne Mann; Stefan Huber; Johannes Bloechle; Klaus Willmes; Ahmed A. Karim; Hans-Christoph Nuerk; Korbinian Moeller
• Keywords: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation; Stroop effect

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an innovative method to explore the causal structure-function relationship of brain areas. We investigated specificity bilateral bi-cephalic tDCS with two active electrodes same polarity (e.g., cathodal on both hemispheres) applied intraparietal cortices bilaterally using a combined between- and within-task approach. Regarding between-task specificity, we observed that affected numerical (mental addition) but not control task (colour word Stroop), indicating specific influence domain general cognitive processes associated IPS. In particular, effect distractor distance was more pronounced under than anodal stimulation. Moreover, respect only found in mental addition be modulated by stimulation, whereas target identity affected. This implies differential recruitment different processing components within (number magnitude vs. recognition familiarity). sum, this first successful application cognition research corroborates proposition Triple Code Model number information represented cortices.