TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Cognitive Functions in Healthy Young and Older Adults
AU - Antonenko, Daria
AU - Faxel, Miriam
AU - Grittner, Ulrike
AU - Lavidor, Michal
AU - Floël, Agnes
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Daria Antonenko et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Recently, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a tool to enhance human cognitive processes. Here, we provide a brief summary of the rationale behind tACS-induced effects on task-relevant brain oscillations and associated cognitive functions and review previous studies in young subjects that have applied tACS in cognitive paradigms. Additionally, we present pilot data where we administered theta-tACS (6 Hz) over the temporoparietal cortex and a supraorbital reference for 20 min during implicit language learning in healthy young (mean/SD age: 22/2) and older (mean/SD age: 66/4) adults, in a sham-controlled crossover design. Linear mixed models revealed significantly increased retrieval accuracy following tACS-accompanied associative learning, after controlling for session order and learning success. These data provide the first implementation of tACS during cognitive performance in older adults and support recent studies suggesting that tACS in the theta frequency range may serve as a tool to enhance cognition, possibly through direct modulation of task-relevant brain oscillations. So far, studies have been heterogeneous in their designs, leaving a number of issues to be addressed in future research, including the setup of electrodes and optimal stimulation frequencies to be employed, as well as the interaction with age and underlying brain pathologies in specific patient populations.
AB - Recently, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a tool to enhance human cognitive processes. Here, we provide a brief summary of the rationale behind tACS-induced effects on task-relevant brain oscillations and associated cognitive functions and review previous studies in young subjects that have applied tACS in cognitive paradigms. Additionally, we present pilot data where we administered theta-tACS (6 Hz) over the temporoparietal cortex and a supraorbital reference for 20 min during implicit language learning in healthy young (mean/SD age: 22/2) and older (mean/SD age: 66/4) adults, in a sham-controlled crossover design. Linear mixed models revealed significantly increased retrieval accuracy following tACS-accompanied associative learning, after controlling for session order and learning success. These data provide the first implementation of tACS during cognitive performance in older adults and support recent studies suggesting that tACS in the theta frequency range may serve as a tool to enhance cognition, possibly through direct modulation of task-relevant brain oscillations. So far, studies have been heterogeneous in their designs, leaving a number of issues to be addressed in future research, including the setup of electrodes and optimal stimulation frequencies to be employed, as well as the interaction with age and underlying brain pathologies in specific patient populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84973439897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1155/2016/4274127
DO - 10.1155/2016/4274127
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C2 - 27298740
SN - 2090-5904
VL - 2016
JO - Neural Plasticity
JF - Neural Plasticity
M1 - 4274127
ER -