Direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex modulates error‐induced behavioral adjustments

Abstract

Commission of errors and conflict between choices might induce behavioral modulations through adjustments in the executive control of behavior and altered patterns of these modulations are detected in neuropsychiatric disorders. We examined the effects of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on error- and conflict-induced behavioral modulations. Two separate cohorts of participants performed two clinically relevant tests of executive control, respectively. In the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), the relevant rule for matching items frequently changed and therefore participants had to detect these unannounced changes by trial and error and alter their rule-based behavior. In the Stop task, participants had to rapidly respond to a directional go-signal but inhibit their responses when a stop signal appeared after the go-signal. Each participant received tDCS (sham, cathodal or anodal) in three separate sessions. Errors led to a slower response in the next trial (post-error slowing) in both tasks. The tDCS significantly modulated the post-error slowing in both tasks but did not affect the behavioral adjustments induced by the conflict. The modulation of post-error slowing by tDCS were polarity-dependent and also trial specific appearing immediately after errors. In the WCST and Stop task, the post-error slowing may reflect different processes involved in shifting the behavior-guiding rule and adjustments in inhibitory control of responses, respectively, and we found that the effective tDCS polarity differed between the two tasks. Here, we show that in two separate cognitive tasks direct current stimulation of DLPFC significantly modulated error-induced behavioral modulations.

Catecholaminergic modulation of indices of cognitive flexibility: A pharmaco-tDCS study

“…reversal learning) but not others (i.e. task switching) are in line with some previous findings [9,10], but not entirely with others [14]. Methodological differences between studies including disparate measures of cognitive flexibility being used, on-line versus offline stimulation, left or right hemisphere targeting, size of the stimulating electrode, position of the reference electrode, the employment of between subjects versus crossover designs, duration of stimulation, means that comparisons should be made with caution.…”

“…Cognitive flexibility has also been tested more directly using set-shifting/task switching tasks, but the results of these have not been entirely reproducible. Anodal tDCS to the dlPFC was shown to improve performance in three studies [11][12][13] and in a fourth study cathodal, but not anodal, stimulation improved certain aspects of cognitive flexibility (post-error slowing in the WCST) but not others (perseverative or total errors in the WCST) [14]. In two of the four studies cited [12,14], stimulation of left dLPFC was shown to be effective, whereas in the other two [11,13], the left and right hemisphere of the dlPFC contributed to different aspects of task-switching performance.…”

N-Back Task Training Helps to Improve Post-error Performance

“…In previous studies, it was commonly observed that PES differed across participants (Steinborn et al, 2012). PES was found to be modulated by participant alertness and transcranial direct current stimulation intervention on the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Mansouri et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2016). Thus, it is possible to improve post-error performance by experimental manipulation; however, whether WM training can improve post-error performance remains understudied.…”

Stimulation of Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Enhances Adaptive Cognitive Control: A High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Study

“…HD-tDCS allows modulating cortical excitability and behavioral performance by administering an electrical current with superior spatial precision compared to conventional tDCS (Kuo et al, 2013;Villamar et al, 2013;Bortoletto et al, 2016). Please note, previous tDCS studies investigating effects of DLPFC stimulation on response inhibition and other forms of cognitive control (Vanderhasselt et al, 2013;Plewnia et al, 2015;Mansouri et al, 2016;Zmigrod et al, 2016) used "conventional" stimulation protocols, which do not allow to administer the current in a regionally specific way (Alam et al, 2016).…”