Transcranial direct current stimulation improves risky decision making in women but not in men: A sham-controlled study

León, J.J.; Sánchez-Kuhn, Ana; Fernández-Martín, Pilar; Páez-Pérez, M.A.; Thomas, Chris; Datta, Abhishek; Sánchez-Santed, Fernando; Flores, Pilar

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112485

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 79 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, in line with the proposal of sex differences in the neural networks underlying cognitive tasks, the laterality of stimulation effect has also been shown to vary between sexes [ 6 ]. In females, an enhancement of verbal working memory occurred with stimulation of the right DLPFC, but left DLPFC stimulation in males [ 6 , 39 ]. These studies suggest that there might be sex-related differences in the outcome of tDCS application.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Several studies have indicated that tDCS applied to frontal areas, implicated with decision-making processes, may have the capacity to attenuate cognitive deficits eminent in various neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders [ 2 , 3 ]. While tDCS application over the motor cortex has yielded more consistent changes in motor evoked potentials [ 4 , 5 ], tDCS over frontal regions have varied in its effects on cognitive outcomes [ 6 – 8 ]. This has impacted the progress of using tDCS in the management of cognitive deficits [ 2 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, tDCS studies implementing various parameters and stimulation modes in healthy and neuropsychiatric subjects have reported an interaction between cortical modulation and sex [ 33 ]. In comparison to males, females often demonstrated more behavioural benefits from the stimulation and heightened cortical excitability [ 6 , 33 ]. It has been proposed that these sex-related differences in tDCS effects may emerge from non-specific sex factors, such as cranial bone thickness and density, particularly in frontal and parietal regions, leading to females receiving less current than males at cortical areas even when the same current density is applied [ 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been proposed that these sex-related differences in tDCS effects may emerge from non-specific sex factors, such as cranial bone thickness and density, particularly in frontal and parietal regions, leading to females receiving less current than males at cortical areas even when the same current density is applied [ 34 ]. In the context of cognitive tasks, the application of tDCS has been shown to enhance emotional recognition [ 35 ], search behaviour [ 36 ], and theory of mind ability [ 37 , 38 ] in females but not males [ 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Investigating the sex-dependent effects of prefrontal cortex stimulation on response execution and inhibition

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context-dependent execution or inhibition of a response is an important aspect of executive control, which is impaired in neuropsychological and addiction disorders. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been considered a remedial approach to address deficits in response control; however, considerable variability has been observed in tDCS effects. These variabilities might be related to contextual differences such as background visual-auditory stimuli or subjects' sex. In this study, we examined the interaction of two contextual factors, participants' sex and background acoustic stimuli, in modulating the effects of tDCS on response inhibition and execution. In a sham-controlled and cross-over (repeated-measure) design, 73 participants (37 females) performed a Stop-Signal Task in different background acoustic conditions before and after tDCS (anodal or sham) was applied over the DLPFC. Participants had to execute a speeded response in Go trials but inhibit their response in Stop trials. Participants' sex was fully counterbalanced across all experimental conditions (acoustic and tDCS). We found significant practice-related learning that appeared as changes in indices of response inhibition (stop-signal reaction time and percentage of successful inhibition) and action execution (response time and percentage correct). The tDCS and acoustic stimuli interactively influenced practice-related changes in response inhibition and these effects were uniformly seen in both males and females. However, the effects of tDCS on response execution (percentage of correct responses) were sex-dependent in that practice-related changes diminished in females but heightened in males. Our findings indicate that participants' sex influenced the effects of tDCS on the execution, but not inhibition, of responses.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Investigating the sex-dependent effects of prefrontal cortex stimulation on response execution and inhibition

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Individual anatomical peculiarities such as the topography of the cortical surface, orientation of the cortical pyramidal neurons, level of fat, cerebrospinal fluid density, and skull thickness may significantly and differently impact the flow and density of the tDCS-induced electrical currents in a variety of ways despite the same stimulation protocol, resulting in different tDCS-induced impact (Rahman et al, 2013;Truong et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2014;Dutta et al, 2015;Woods et al, 2019;Filmer et al, 2020;Habich et al, 2020). Sex-specific morphological differences should also be taken into consideration since they were shown to differentiate performance-related tDCS effects (León et al, 2020). The same applies to age-specific neurochemical, functional, and morphological differences (Antonenko et al, 2017(Antonenko et al, , 2019.…”

Section: Bilateral Tdcs Increases Hemodynamic Response In Both Reward Conditions But Does Not Enhance Choice Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Functional Effects of Bilateral Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Modulation During Sequential Decision-Making: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study With Offline Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Schommartz

Dix

Passow

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to learn sequential contingencies of actions for predicting future outcomes is indispensable for flexible behavior in many daily decision-making contexts. It remains open whether such ability may be enhanced by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). The present study combined tDCS with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate potential tDCS-induced effects on sequential decision-making and the neural mechanisms underlying such modulations. Offline tDCS and sham stimulation were applied over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in young male adults (N = 29, mean age = 23.4 years, SD = 3.2) in a double-blind between-subject design using a three-state Markov decision task. The results showed (i) an enhanced dlPFC hemodynamic response during the acquisition of sequential state transitions that is consistent with the findings from a previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study; (ii) a tDCS-induced increase of the hemodynamic response in the dlPFC, but without accompanying performance-enhancing effects at the behavioral level; and (iii) a greater tDCS-induced upregulation of hemodynamic responses in the delayed reward condition that seems to be associated with faster decision speed. Taken together, these findings provide empirical evidence for fNIRS as a suitable method for investigating hemodynamic correlates of sequential decision-making as well as functional brain correlates underlying tDCS-induced modulation. Future research with larger sample sizes for carrying out subgroup analysis is necessary in order to decipher interindividual differences in tDCS-induced effects on sequential decision-making process at the behavioral and brain levels.

show abstract

The Iowa Gambling Task: Men and Women Perform Differently. A Meta-analysis

Zanini,

Picano,

Spitoni

2024

Neuropsychol Rev

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was designed to assess decision-making under conditions of complexity and uncertainty; it is currently one of the most widely used tests to assess decision-making in both experimental and clinical settings. In the original version of the task, participants are given a loan of play money and four decks of cards and are asked to maximize profits. Although any single card unpredictably yields wins/losses, variations in frequency and size of gains/losses ultimately make two decks more advantageous in the long term. Several studies have previously suggested that there may be a sex-related difference in IGT performance. Thus, the present study aimed to explore and quantify sex differences in IGT performance by pooling the results of 110 studies. The meta-analysis revealed that males tend to perform better than females on the classic 100-trial IGT (UMD = 3.381; p < 0.001). Furthermore, the significant heterogeneity observed suggests high variability in the results obtained by individual studies. Results were not affected by publication bias or other moderators. Factors that may contribute to differences in male and female performance are discussed, such as functional sex-related asymmetries in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, as well as differences in sensitivity to wins/losses.

show abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation improves risky decision making in women but not in men: A sham-controlled study

Cited by 26 publications

References 79 publications

Investigating the sex-dependent effects of prefrontal cortex stimulation on response execution and inhibition

Investigating the sex-dependent effects of prefrontal cortex stimulation on response execution and inhibition

Functional Effects of Bilateral Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Modulation During Sequential Decision-Making: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study With Offline Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

The Iowa Gambling Task: Men and Women Perform Differently. A Meta-analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About