Abstract
Previous neuroimaging evidence highlights the translational implications of targeting the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), i.e. a key node of the networks underlying conflict monitoring and decision-making, in brain stimulation treatments with clinical or rehabilitative purposes. While the optimized modelling of “high-definition” current flows between multiple anode–cathode pairs might, in principle, allow to stimulate an otherwise challenging target, sensitive benchmark metrics of dACC neuromodulation are required to assess the effectiveness of this approach. On this basis, we aimed to assess the modulatory effect of anodal and cathodal high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) of the dACC on different facets of executive control and decision-making in healthy young individuals. A combined modelling/targeting procedure provided the optimal montage for the maximum intensity of dACC stimulation with six small “high-definition” electrodes delivering anodal, cathodal or sham HD-tDCS for 20 min in a within-subject design with three separate sessions. Following stimulation, participants performed Flanker and gambling tasks unveiling individual differences in executive control and both loss- and risk-aversion in decision-making, respectively. Compared to both anodal and sham conditions, cathodal dACC stimulation significantly affected task performance by increasing control over the Flanker conflict effect, and both loss and risk-aversion in decision-making. By confirming the feasibility and effectiveness of dACC stimulation with HD-tDCS, these findings highlight the implications of modelling and targeting procedures for neuromodulation in clinical research, whereby innovative protocols might serve as treatment addressing dysfunctional dACC activity, or combined with cognitive training, to enhance higher-order executive functioning in different neuropsychiatric conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Code availability
The codes used to analyse the data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Abutalebi J, Della Rosa PA, Green DW, Hernandez M, Scifo P, Keim R, Costa A (2011) Bilingualism tunes the anterior cingulate cortex for conflict monitoring. Cereb Cortex 22(9):2076–2086. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhr287
Aizenstein HJ, Butters MA, Wu M, Mazurkewicz LM, Stenger VA, Gianaros PJ, Carter CS (2009) Altered functioning of the executive control circuit in late-life depression: episodic and persistent phenomena. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 17(1):30–42. https://doi.org/10.1097/JGP.0b013e31817b60af
Alexander WH, Brown JW (2010a) Competition between learned reward and error outcome predictions in anterior cingulate cortex. Neuroimage 49(4):3210–3218. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.11.065
Alexander WH, Brown JW (2010b) Computational models of performance monitoring and cognitive control. Top Cogn Sci 2(4):658–677. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01085.x
Alexander WH, Brown JW (2011) Medial prefrontal cortex as an action-outcome predictor. Nat Neurosci 14(10):1338–1344. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2921
Antal A, Nitsche MA, Kruse W, Kincses TZ, Hoffmann K-P, Paulus W (2004) Direct current stimulation over V5 enhances visuomotor coordination by improving motion perception in humans. J Cogn Neurosci 16(4):521–527. https://doi.org/10.1162/089892904323057263
Batsikadze G, Moliadze V, Paulus W, Kuo MF, Nitsche MA (2013) Partially non-linear stimulation intensity-dependent effects of direct current stimulation on motor cortex excitability in humans. J Physiol 591:1987–2000
Bikson M, Rahman A (2013) Origins of specificity during tDCS: anatomical, activity-selective, and input-bias mechanisms. Front Hum Neurosci 7:688
Bush G, Vogt BA, Holmes J, Dale AM, Greve D, Jenike MA, Rosen BR (2002) Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex: a role in reward-based decision making. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99(1):523–528. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.012470999
Canessa N, Crespi C, Motterlini M, Baud-Bovy G, Chierchia G, Pantaleo G, Cappa SF (2013) The functional and structural neural basis of individual differences in loss aversion. J Neurosci 33(36):14307–14317. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0497-13.2013
Canessa N, Crespi C, Baud-Bovy G, Dodich A, Falini A, Antonellis G, Cappa SF (2017) Neural markers of loss aversion in resting-state brain activity. Neuroimage 146:257–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.11.050
Carter CS, MacDonald AW, Ross LL, Stenger VA (2001) Anterior cingulate cortex activity and impaired self-monitoring of performance in patients with schizophrenia: an event-related fMRI study. Am J Psychiatry 158(9):1423–1428. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.9.1423
Chen X, Voets S, Jenkinson N, Galea JM (2020) Dopamine-dependent loss aversion during effort-based decision-making. J Neurosci 40(3):661–670. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1760-19.2019
Croxson PL, Walton ME, O’Reilly JX, Behrens TEJ, Rushworth MFS (2009) Effort-based cost-benefit valuation and the human brain. J Neurosci 29(14):4531–4541. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4515-08.2009
Cuthbert BN (2015) Research domain criteria: toward future psychiatric nosologies. Dialogues Clin Neurosci 17(1):89–97. https://doi.org/10.31887/dcns.2015.17.1/bcuthbert
DaSilva AF, Truong DQ, DosSantos MF, Toback RL, Datta A, Bikson M (2015) State-of-art neuroanatomical target analysis of high-definition and conventional tDCS montages used for migraine and pain control. Front Neuroanat 9:89. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2015.00089
Datta A, Elwassif M, Battaglia F, Bikson M (2008) Transcranial current stimulation focality using disc and ring electrode configurations: FEM analysis. J Neural Eng 5(2):163–174. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2560/5/2/007
De Martino B, Kumaran D, Seymour B, Dolan RJ (2006) Frames, biases, and rational decision-making in the human brain. Science (new York, NY) 313(5787):684–687. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1128356
Dmochowski JP, Datta A, Bikson M, Su Y, Parra LC (2011) Optimized multi-electrode stimulation increases focality and intensity at target. J Neural Eng. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2560/8/4/046011
Downar J, Blumberger DM, Daskalakis ZJ (2016) The neural crossroads of psychiatric illness: an emerging target for brain stimulation. Trends Cogn Sci 20(2):107–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2015.10.007
Dunlop KA, Woodside B, Downar J (2016) Targeting neural endophenotypes of eating disorders with non-invasive brain stimulation. Front Neurosci 10:30. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00030
Edwards D, Cortes M, Datta A, Minhas P, Wassermann EM, Bikson M (2013) Physiological and modeling evidence for focal transcranial electrical brain stimulation in humans: a basis for high-definition tDCS. Neuroimage 74:266–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.01.042
Eriksen B, Eriksen C (1974) Effects of noise letters upon the identification of a target letter in a nonsearch task. Percept Psychophys 16(1):143–149. https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2000.i650.965
Esmaeilpour Z, Shereen AD, Ghobadi-Azbari P, Datta A, Woods AJ, Ironside M, Ekhtiari H (2020) Methodology for tDCS integration with fMRI. Hum Brain Mapp 41(7):1950–1967. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24908
Fan J, McCandliss BD, Sommer T, Raz A, Posner MI (2002) Testing the efficiency and independence of attentional networks. J Cogn Neurosci 14(3):340–347. https://doi.org/10.1162/089892902317361886
Fan J, McCandliss B, Fossella J, Flombaum J, Posner M (2005) The activation of attentional networks. Neuroimage 26(2):471–479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.004
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A (2007) G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 39(2):175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146
Fertonani A, Ferrari C, Miniussi C (2015) What do you feel if I apply transcranial electric stimulation? Safety, sensations and secondary induced effects. Clin Neurophysiol 126(11):2181–2188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2015.03.015
Fleming SM, Dolan RJ (2010) Effects of loss aversion on post-decision wagering: implications for measures of awareness. Conscious Cogn 19(1):352–363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2009.11.002
Friehs MA, Frings C (2019) Offline beats online: transcranial direct current stimulation timing influences on working memory. NeuroReport 30(12):795–799. https://doi.org/10.1097/wnr.0000000000001272
Gandiga PC, Hummel FC, Cohen LG (2006) Transcranial DC stimulation (tDCS): a tool for double-blind sham-controlled clinical studies in brain stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 117(4):845–850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2005.12.003
Garnett EO, Malyutina S, Datta A, Ouden DD (2015) On the use of the terms anodal and cathodal in high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation : a technical note. Neuromodul Technol Neural Interface. https://doi.org/10.1111/ner.12320
Gbadeyan O, McMahon K, Steinhauser M, Meinzer M (2016) Stimulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex enhances adaptive cognitive control: a high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation study. J Neurosci 36(50):12530–12536
Gluth S, Rieskamp J, Büchel C (2012) Deciding when to decide: time-variant sequential sampling models explain the emergence of value-based decisions in the human brain. J Neurosci 32(31):10686–10698. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0727-12.2012
Goldstein RZ, Alia-Klein N, Tomasi D, Carrillo JH, Maloney T, Woicik PA, Volkow ND (2009) Anterior cingulate cortex hypoactivations to an emotionally salient task in cocaine addiction. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106(23):9453–9458. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0900491106
Goschke T, Bolte A (2014) Emotional modulation of control dilemmas: the role of positive affect, reward, and dopamine in cognitive stability and flexibility. Neuropsychologia 62:403–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.07.015
Grasso PA, Tonolli E, Bortoletto M, Miniussi C (2021) tDCS over posterior parietal cortex increases cortical excitability but decreases learning: an ERPs and TMS-EEG study. Brain Res 1753:147227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2020.147227
Groenewold NA, Opmeer EM, de Jonge P, Aleman A, Costafreda SG (2013) Emotional valence modulates brain functional abnormalities in depression: evidence from a meta-analysis of fMRI studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 37(2):152–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.11.015
Guo H, Zhang Z, Da S, Sheng X, Zhang X (2018) High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects performance in Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). Brain Behav 8(2):e00884–e00884. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.884
Hewig J, Straube T, Trippe RH, Kretschmer N, Hecht H, Coles MGH, Miltner WHR (2009) Decision-making under risk: an fMRI study. J Cogn Neurosci 21(8):1642–1652. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21112
Hogeveen J, Grafman J, Aboseria M, David A, Bikson M, Hauner KK (2016) Effects of high-definition and conventional tDCS on response inhibition. Brain Stimul 9(5):720–729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2016.04.015
Holroyd CB, Umemoto A (2016) Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews the research domain criteria framework: the case for anterior cingulate cortex. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 71:418–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.09.021
Holroyd CB, Nieuwenhuis S, Yeung N, Nystrom L, Mars RB, Coles MGH, Cohen JD (2004) Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex shows fMRI response to internal and external error signals. Nat Neurosci 7(5):497–498. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1238
Huang Y, Parra LC, Haufe S (2016) The New York Head-A precise standardized volume conductor model for EEG source localization and tES targeting. Neuroimage 140:150–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.12.019
Hyafil A, Summerfield C, Koechlin E (2009) Two mechanisms for task switching in the prefrontal cortex. J Neurosci 29(16):5135–5142. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2828-08.2009
Imburgio MJ, Orr JM (2018) Effects of prefrontal tDCS on executive function: methodological considerations revealed by meta-analysis. Neuropsychologia 117(April):156–166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.022
Jacobson L, Koslowsky M, Lavidor M (2011) tDCS polarity effects in motor and cognitive domains: a meta-analytical review. Exp Brain Res 216(1):1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2891-9
Javadi AH, Cheng P (2013) Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhances reconsolidation of long-term memory. Brain Stimul 6(4):668–674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2012.10.007
Jones KT, Berryhill ME (2012) Parietal contributions to visual working memory depend on task difficulty. Front Psychiatry 3(Sep):1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2012.00081
Kahneman D, Tversky A (1979) Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk. Econometrica 47(2):263. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914185
Karuza EA, Balewski ZZ, Hamilton RH, Medaglia JD, Tardiff N, Thompson-Schill SL (2016) Mapping the parameter space of tDCS and cognitive control via manipulation of current polarity and intensity. Front Hum Neurosci 10(DEC2016):1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00665
Kaur N, Whitman ET, Moser AD, Hinojosa CA, Vanelzakker MB, Camprodon JA, Shin LM (2020) Targeting the anterior cingulate with bipolar and high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation. NeuroReport. https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.0000000000001413
Keel JC, Smith MJ, Wassermann EM (2001) A safety screening questionnaire for transcranial magnetic stimulation. Clin Neurophysiol 112(4):720. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1388-2457(00)00518-6
Knoch D, Gianotti LRR, Pascual-Leone A, Treyer V, Regard M, Hohmann M, Brugger P (2006) Disruption of right prefrontal cortex by low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation induces risk-taking behavior. J Neurosci 26(24):6469–6472. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0804-06.2006
Koechlin E, Summerfield C (2007) An information theoretical approach to prefrontal executive function. Trends Cogn Sci 11(6):229–235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2007.04.005
Levkovitz Y, Harel EV, Roth Y, Braw Y, Most D, Katz LN, Zangen A (2009) Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation over the prefrontal cortex: evaluation of antidepressant and cognitive effects in depressive patients. Brain Stimul 2(4):188–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2009.08.002
Ma N, Liu Y, Li N, Wang CX, Zhang H, Jiang XF, Zhang DR (2010) Addiction related alteration in resting-state brain connectivity. Neuroimage 49(1):738–744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.08.037
MacDonald AG, Cohen JD, Stenger VA, Carter CS (2000) Dissociating the role of the dorsolateral prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex in cognitive control. Science 288:1835–1839. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.288.5472.1835
Martin DM, Liu R, Alonzo A, Green M, Loo CK (2014) Use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to enhance cognitive training : effect of timing of stimulation. Exp Brain Res 232:3345–3351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-4022-x
Mattavelli G, Gallucci A, Schiena G, D’Agostino A, Sassetti T, Bonora S, Papagno C (2019) Transcranial direct current stimulation modulates implicit attitudes towards food in eating disorders. Int J Eat Disord 52(5):576–581. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23046
McGovern RA, Sheth SA (2017) Role of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in obsessive-compulsive disorder: converging evidence from cognitive neuroscience and psychiatric neurosurgery. J Neurosurg 126(1):132–147. https://doi.org/10.3171/2016.1.jns15601
McNab F, Leroux G, Strand F, Thorell L, Bergman S, Klingberg T (2008) Common and unique components of inhibition and working memory: an fMRI, within-subjects investigation. Neuropsychologia 46(11):2668–2682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.023
Moos K, Vossel S, Weidner R, Sparing R, Fink GR (2012) Modulation of top-down control of visual attention by cathodal tDCS over right IPS. J Neurosci 32(46):16360–16368. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.6233-11.2012
Morris SE, Cuthbert BN (2012) Research Domain Criteria: cognitive systems, neural circuits, and dimensions of behavior. Dialogues Clin Neurosci 14:29–37
Nitsche MA, Paulus W (2000) Excitability changes induced in the human motor cortex by weak transcranial direct current stimulation. J Physiol 527:633–639
Nitsche MA, Liebetanz D, Lang N, Antal A, Tergau F, Paulus W, Priori A (2003) Safety criteria for transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in humans. Clin Neurophysiol 114:2220–2223. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1388-2457(03)00235-9
Nitsche MA, Niehaus L, Hoffmann KT, Hengst S, Liebetanz D, Paulus W, Meyer B-U (2004) MRI study of human brain exposed to weak direct current stimulation of the frontal cortex. Clin Neurophysiol 115(10):2419–2423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2004.05.001
Nitsche MA, Cohen LG, Wassermann EM, Priori A, Lang N, Antal A, Pascual-Leone A (2008) Transcranial direct current stimulation: State of the art 2008. Brain Stimul 1:206–223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2008.06.004
Palm U, Reisinger E, Keeser D, Kuo M-F, Pogarell O, Leicht G, Padberg F (2013) Evaluation of sham transcranial direct current stimulation for randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Brain Stimul 6(4):690–695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2013.01.005
Pisoni A, Mattavelli G, Papagno C, Rosanova M, Casali AG, Romero Lauro LJ (2017) Cognitive enhancement induced by anodal tDCS drives circuit-specific cortical plasticity. Cereb Cortex 28(4):1132–1140. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx021
Poreisz C, Boros K, Antal A, Paulus W (2007) Safety aspects of transcranial direct current stimulation concerning healthy subjects and patients. Brain Res Bull 72:208–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainresbull.2007.01.004
Renzi C, Ferrari C, Schiavi S, Pisoni A, Papagno C, Vecchi T, Cattaneo Z (2015) The role of the occipital face area in holistic processing involved in face detection and discrimination: a tDCS study. Neuropsychology 29(3):409–416. https://doi.org/10.1037/neu0000127
Ridderinkhof KR (2004) The role of the medial frontal cortex in cognitive control. Science 306(5695):443–447. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1100301
Romero Lauro LJ, Rosanova M, Mattavelli G, Convento S, Pisoni A, Opitz A, Vallar G (2014) TDCS increases cortical excitability: direct evidence from TMS-EEG. Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.05.003
Romero Lauro LJ, Pisoni A, Rosanova M, Casarotto S, Mattavelli G, Bolognini N, Vallar G (2016) Localizing the effects of anodal tDCS at the level of cortical sources: a reply to Bailey et al., 2015. Cortex 74:323–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.023
Roth Y, Amir A, Levkovitz Y, Zangen A (2007) Three-dimensional distribution of the electric field induced in the brain by transcranial magnetic stimulation using figure-8 and deep H-coils. J Clin Neurophysiol 24(1):31–38. https://doi.org/10.1097/wnp.0b013e31802fa393
Roy LB, Sparing R, Fink GR, Hesse MD (2015) Modulation of attention functions by anodal tDCS on right PPC. Neuropsychologia 74:96–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.02.028
Rushworth MFS, Behrens TEJ (2008) Choice, uncertainty and value in prefrontal and cingulate cortex. Nat Neurosci 11(4):389–397. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn2066
Rushworth M, Walton M, Kennerley S, Banenrman D (2004) Action sets and decisions in the medial frontal cortex. Trends Cogn Sci 8(9):410–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2004.07.009
Samson AC, Kreibig SD, Soderstrom B, Wade AA, Gross JJ (2015) Eliciting positive, negative and mixed emotional states: a film library for affective scientists. Cogn Emot 30(5):827–856. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2015.1031089
Schroeder PA, Schwippel T, Wolz I, Svaldi J (2020) Meta-analysis of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on inhibitory control. Brain Stimul 13(5):1159–1167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2020.05.006
Shen B, Yin Y, Wang J, Zhou X, McClure SM, Li J (2016) High-definition tDCS alters impulsivity in a baseline-dependent manner. Neuroimage 143:343–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.09.006
Shenhav A, Cohen J, Botvinick MM (2016) Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the value of control. Nat Neurosci 19(10):1280–1285. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4382
Siemann J, Herrmann M, Galashan D (2016) fMRI-constrained source analysis reveals early top–down modulations of interference processing using a flanker task. Neuroimage 136:45–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.05.036
Sokol-Hessner P, Lackovic SF, Tobe RH, Camerer CF, Leventhal BL, Phelps EA (2015) Determinants of Propranolol’s Selective Effect on Loss Aversion. Psychol Sci 26(7):1123–1130. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615582026
Stevens T, Brevers D, Chambers CD, Lavric A, McLaren IPL, Mertens M, Verbruggen F (2015) How does response inhibition influence decision making when gambling? J Exp Psychol Appl 21(1):15–36. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000039
Takahashi H, Fujie S, Camerer C, Arakawa R, Takano H, Kodaka F, Suhara T (2012) Norepinephrine in the brain is associated with aversion to financial loss. Mol Psychiatry 18(1):3–4. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2012.7
Takeuchi H, Kawada R, Tsurumi K, Yokoyama N, Takemura A, Murao T, Takahashi H (2016) Heterogeneity of Loss Aversion in Pathological Gambling. J Gambl Stud 32(4):1143–1154. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-015-9587-1
To WT, Eroh J, Hart J, Vanneste S (2018) Exploring the effects of anodal and cathodal high definition transcranial direct current stimulation targeting the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Sci Rep 8(1):1–16. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22730-x
Tom SM, Fox CR, Trepel C, Poldrack RA (2007) The neural basis of loss aversion in decision-making under risk. Science 315(5811):515–518. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1134239
Tversky A, Kahneman D (1981) The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science 211(4481):453–458. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7455683
van Maanen L, Brown SD, Eichele T, Wagenmakers E-J, Ho T, Serences J, Forstmann BU (2011) Neural correlates of trial-to-trial fluctuations in response caution. J Neurosci 31(48):17488–17495. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2924-11.2011
van’t Wout M, Kahn RS, Sanfey AG, Aleman A (2005) Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects strategic decision-making. NeuroReport 16(16):1849–1852. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnr.0000183907.08149.14
Varoli E, Pisoni A, Mattavelli GC, Vergallito A, Gallucci A, Mauro LD, Lauro LJR (2018) Tracking the effect of cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation on cortical excitability and connectivity by means of TMS-EEG. Front Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00319
Verbruggen F, Adams R, Chambers CD (2012) Proactive motor control reduces monetary risk taking in gambling. Psychol Sci 23(7):805–815. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611434538
Verveer I, Hill AT, Franken IHA, Yücel M, van Dongen JDM, Segrave R (2021) Modulation of control: can HD-tDCS targeting the dACC reduce impulsivity? Brain Res 1756:147282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2021.147282
Wager TD, Sylvester CYC, Lacey SC, Nee DE, Franklin M, Jonides J (2005) Common and unique components of response inhibition revealed by fMRI. Neuroimage 27(2):323–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.01.054
Wei Z, Yang N, Liu Y, Yang L, Wang Y, Han L, Zhang X (2016) Resting-state functional connectivity between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and thalamus is associated with risky decision-making in nicotine addicts. Sci Rep 6(July 2015):1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep21778
Weiss M, Lavidor M (2012) When less is more: evidence for a facilitative cathodal tDCS effect in attentional abilities. J Cogn Neurosci 24(9):1826–1833. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00248
Weissman DH (2004) Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex resolves conflict from distracting stimuli by boosting attention toward relevant events. Cereb Cortex 15(2):229–237. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhh125
Weissman DH, Giesbrecht B, Song AW, Mangun GR, Woldorff MG (2003) Conflict monitoring in the human anterior cingulate cortex during selective attention to global and local object features. Neuroimage 19(4):1361–1368. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00167-8
Weller S, Nitsche MA, Plewnia C (2020) Enhancing cognitive control training with transcranial direct current stimulation: a systematic parameter study. Brain Stimul 13(5):1358–1369
Woods AJ, Antal A, Bikson M, Boggio PS, Brunoni AR, Celnik P, Nitsche MA (2016) A technical guide to tDCS, and related non-invasive brain stimulation tools. Clin Neurophysiol 127(2):1031–1048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2015.11.012
Yücel M, Lubman DI, Harrison BJ, Fornito A, Allen NB, Wellard RM, Pantelis C (2007) A combined spectroscopic and functional MRI investigation of the dorsal anterior cingulate region in opiate addiction. Mol Psychiatry 12(7):691–702. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001955
Zmigrod S, Zmigrod L, Hommel B (2016) Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects stimulus conflict but not response conflict. Neuroscience 322:320–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.02.046
Acknowledgements
This research was partially supported by the “Ricerca Corrente” funding scheme of the Italian Ministry of Health. The authors have no financial interests relating to the work described and declare no conflict of interest.
Funding
Partial financial support was received from the “Ricerca Corrente” funding scheme of the Italian Ministry of Health.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
GM conceptualization, data curation, investigation, methodology, writing—original draft. SLP investigation, writing—review and editing; DT: investigation, writing—review and editing. NC: conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, methodology, writing—original draft.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declare no competing interests.
Ethical approval
The experimental protocol was approved by ICS Maugeri Ethics Committee according to the latest version of the declaration of Helsinki and safety guidelines for tDCS application (Poreisz et al. 2007).
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Consent for publication
Human research participants provided informed consent for publication of the data anonymously.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mattavelli, G., Lo Presti, S., Tornaghi, D. et al. High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex modulates decision-making and executive control. Brain Struct Funct 227, 1565–1576 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-022-02456-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-022-02456-3