Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), Leaves Virtual Navigation Performance Unchanged

Abstract

Spatial cognition is an umbrella term used to refer to the complex set of abilities necessary to encode, categorize, and use spatial information from the surrounding environment to move effectively and orient within it. Experimental studies indicate that the cerebellum belongs to the neural network involved in spatial cognition, although its exact role in this function remains unclear. Our aim was to investigate in a pilot study using a virtual reality navigation task in healthy subjects whether cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive technique, influences spatial navigation. Forty healthy volunteers (24 women; age range = 20–42 years; years of education range 13–18) were recruited. The virtual reality spatial navigation task comprised two phases: encoding, in which participants actively navigated the environment and learned the spatial locations for one object, and retrieval, in which they retrieved the position of the object they had discovered and memorized in the previous encoding phase, starting from another starting point. Participants received tDCS stimulation (anodal or sham according to the experimental condition they were assigned to) for 20 min before beginning the retrieval phase. Our results showed that cerebellar tDCS left the accuracy of the three indexes used to measure effective navigational abilities unchanged. Hence, cerebellar tDCS had no influence on the retrieval phase for the spatial maps stored. Further studies, enrolling a larger sample and testing a different stimulation protocol, may give a greater insight into the role of the cerebellum in spatial navigation.

Modulating mental state recognition by anodal tDCS over the cerebellum

“…The primary strength of this approach is that it does not generate discomfort and can be easily combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy in those pathological conditions that present with pharmacological treatment resistance 83 . All in all, noninvasive cerebellar stimulation may represent a promising strategy for improving residual cerebellar circuit functioning and as a complementary tool for rehabilitation protocols in patients with cerebellar dysfunction 84 . However, we have to consider that the after-effects of tDCS over the cerebellum are highly variable among individuals.…”

A Computational Approach for the Assessment of Executive Functions in Patients with Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

“…This technology allows subjects to explore and manage several situations inspired by daily experiences using real correspondent behaviors in a more controlled, safe, and low-cost setting than real-life situations [19]. In the last few years, VR was applied for the assessment and rehabilitation of several psychological diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder [20,21,22], anxiety [23,24], and eating disorders [25], as well as for neuropsychological domains such as neglect [26,27], executive functions [28,29], decision-making [30], spatial memory and orientation [31,32,33], and cognitive rehabilitation of schizophrenia [34].…”