Abstract
Several studies suggest that the cerebellum is involved in cognitive functions. Findings in cerebellar patient studies are inconsistent due to small group sizes and different location of lesions. Here we used cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right cerebellum to induce non-invasive virtual cerebellar lesions in healthy participants. Before and after tDCS application participants were tested on their verbal working memory capacities by means of forward and backward digit spans. In line with lower digit spans in patients with cerebellar lesions, cerebellar tDCS reduced forward digit spans and blocked a practice dependent increase in backward digit spans. No effects of tDCS on word reading, finger tapping or the visually cued sensorimotor task were found. These results indicate a causal role of the cerebellum in verbal working memory.
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Macher, K., Böhringer, A., Dukart, J., Villringer, A., Pleger, B. (2013). Virtual Cerebellar Lesions Influence Verbal Working Memory a tDCS Study. In: Pons, J., Torricelli, D., Pajaro, M. (eds) Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation. Biosystems & Biorobotics, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34546-3_85
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34546-3_85
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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