Dual-tDCS over the right prefrontal cortex does not modulate stop-signal task performance

Friehs, Maximilian A.; Brauner, Lisa; Frings, Christian

doi:10.1007/s00221-020-05995-5

Research Article
Published: 04 January 2021

Dual-tDCS over the right prefrontal cortex does not modulate stop-signal task performance

Experimental Brain Research volume 239, pages 811–820 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Stopping an already initiated action is crucial for human everyday behavior and empirical evidence points toward the prefrontal cortex playing a key role in response inhibition. Two regions that have been consistently implicated in response inhibition are the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the more superior region of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The present study targets both regions with non-invasive brain stimulation to investigate their role in response inhibition. Thus dual-prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied to both IFG and DLPFC in a repeated measures design and compared to sham tDCS. Specifically, 9 cm² electrodes were positioned over both IFG and DLPFC in all groups. The active stimulation groups received off-line, anodal or cathodal tDCS over the IFG and opposite polarity tDCS of the DLPFC, while the sham stimulation group received short stimulation at the start, middle and end of the supposed 20-min stimulation period. Before and after tDCS, subjects’ inhibition capabilities were probed using the stop-signal task (SST). In a final sample of N = 45, participants were randomly split into three groups and received three different stimulation protocols. Results indicated that dual-frontal tDCS did not influence performance as compared to sham stimulation. This null result was confirmed using Bayesian analysis. This result is discussed against the background of the limitations of the present study as well as the potential theoretical implications.

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Notes

It should be noted that the position of the electrode over the right IFG does not match some of the previous literature. However those studies utilized much larger electrodes and the area of stimulation includes the F8 position (e.g., Jacobson et al. 2011; Ditye et al. 2012; Stramaccia et al. 2015; Cai et al. 2016). Furthermore, based on studies that match EEG 10–20 positions to brain structures, the F8 position most closely correlates with the right IFG (Okamoto et al. 2004).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Janelle Berscheid for proofreading of the manuscript.

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University of Trier, Trier, Germany
Maximilian A. Friehs, Lisa Brauner & Christian Frings
School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Dublin, Ireland
Maximilian A. Friehs

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Maximilian A. Friehs
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Lisa Brauner
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Christian Frings
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Table 2 Side effects of the tDCS stimulation for all three conditions reported by the participants on a 0–100 scale as well as a comparison of between-group differences

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Friehs, M.A., Brauner, L. & Frings, C. Dual-tDCS over the right prefrontal cortex does not modulate stop-signal task performance. Exp Brain Res 239, 811–820 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05995-5

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Received: 16 September 2020
Accepted: 19 November 2020
Published: 04 January 2021
Issue Date: March 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05995-5

Keywords

Transcranial direct current stimulation
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Response inhibition
Stop-signal task
Network compensation

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