Combining HF rTMS over the Left DLPFC with Concurrent Cognitive Activity for the Offline Modulation of Working Memory in Healthy Volunteers: A Proof-of-Concept Study
by
Ilya Bakulin 1,*, Alfiia Zabirova 1, Dmitry Lagoda 1, Alexandra Poydasheva 1, Anastasiia Cherkasova 1, Nikolay Pavlov 1, Peter Kopnin 1, Dmitry Sinitsyn 1, Elena Kremneva 1, Maxim Fedorov 2, Elena Gnedovskaya 1,2, Natalia Suponeva 1 and Michael Piradov 1
Ilya Bakulin 1,*, Alfiia Zabirova 1, Dmitry Lagoda 1, Alexandra Poydasheva 1, Anastasiia Cherkasova 1, Nikolay Pavlov 1, Peter Kopnin 1, Dmitry Sinitsyn 1, Elena Kremneva 1, Maxim Fedorov 2, Elena Gnedovskaya 1,2, Natalia Suponeva 1 and Michael Piradov 1
1
Research Center of Neurology, Volokolamskoe shosse, 80, Moscow 125367, Russia
2
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Bolshoy Boulevard, 30, bld. 1, territory of innovation center «Skolkovo», Moscow 121205, Russia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(2), 83; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10020083
Received: 27 December 2019 / Revised: 31 January 2020 / Accepted: 3 February 2020 / Published: 4 February 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Cognitive Neuroscience)
It has been proposed that the effectiveness of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) as a cognitive enhancement technique may be enhanced by combining the stimulation with concurrent cognitive activity. However, the benefits of such a combination in comparison to protocols without ongoing cognitive activity have not yet been studied. In the present study, we investigate the effects of fMRI-guided high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF rTMS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on working memory (WM) in healthy volunteers, using an n-back task with spatial and verbal stimuli and a spatial span task. In two combined protocols (TMS + WM + (maintenance) and TMS + WM + (rest)) trains of stimuli were applied in the maintenance and rest periods of the modified Sternberg task, respectively. We compared them to HF rTMS without a cognitive load (TMS + WM-) and control stimulation (TMS – WM + (maintenance)). No serious adverse effects appeared in this study. Among all protocols, significant effects on WM were shown only for the TMS + WM- with oppositely directed influences of this protocol on storage and manipulation in spatial WM. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the effects of TMS + WM- and TMS + WM + (maintenance), suggesting that simultaneous cognitive activity does not necessarily lead to an increase in TMS effects.
Keywords:
working memory; non-invasive brain stimulation; transcranial magnetic stimulation; neuromodulation; cognitive function; cognitive training; N-back task; dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; cognitive enhancement
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
- Supplementary File 1:
ZIP-Document (ZIP, 223 KB)
MDPI and ACS Style
Bakulin, I.; Zabirova, A.; Lagoda, D.; Poydasheva, A.; Cherkasova, A.; Pavlov, N.; Kopnin, P.; Sinitsyn, D.; Kremneva, E.; Fedorov, M.; Gnedovskaya, E.; Suponeva, N.; Piradov, M. Combining HF rTMS over the Left DLPFC with Concurrent Cognitive Activity for the Offline Modulation of Working Memory in Healthy Volunteers: A Proof-of-Concept Study. Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 83.
Show more citation formats
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
