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Cerebellar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Impairs Visual Working Memory

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Abstract

An increasing body of evidence points to the involvement of the cerebellum in cognition. Specifically, previous studies have shown that the superior and inferior portions of the cerebellum are involved in different verbal working memory (WM) mechanisms as part of two separate cerebro-cerebellar loops for articulatory rehearsal and phonological storage mechanisms. In comparison, our understanding of the involvement of the cerebellum in visual WM remains limited. We have previously shown that performance in verbal WM is disrupted by single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the right superior cerebellum. The present study aimed to expand on this notion by exploring whether the inferior cerebellum is similarly involved in visual WM. Here, we used fMRI-guided, double-pulse TMS to probe the necessity of left superior and left inferior cerebellum in visual WM. We first conducted an fMRI localizer using the Sternberg visual WM task, which yielded targets in left superior and inferior cerebellum. Subsequently, TMS stimulation of these regions at the end of the encoding phase resulted in decreased accuracy in the visual WM task. Differences in the visual WM deficits caused by stimulation of superior and inferior left cerebellum raise the possibility that these regions are involved in different stages of visual WM.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to especially thank Wei Peng Teo and Kai-Ling Cathy Kao for their contributions to running parts of the experiments and initial data analyses for the present work.

Funding

This work was supported by a Tier 2 research grant from the Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE2011-T2-1–031). NV-G was supported by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) under the Science of Learning grant (NRF2016-SOL002-011). JED was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01 MH104588 and P50 HD103538.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Nestor Viñas-Guasch, Jiamin Gladys Heng & S. H. Annabel Chen

  2. National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Tommy Hock Beng Ng & S. H. Annabel Chen

  3. School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Jiamin Gladys Heng

  4. Division of Neurology, University Medicine Cluster, National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore

    Yee Cheun Chan

  5. Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Yee Cheun Chan & Effie Chew

  6. Division of Rehabilitation Medicine, Department of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore

    Effie Chew

  7. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

    John E. Desmond

  8. Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    S. H. Annabel Chen

  9. Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    S. H. Annabel Chen

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  1. Nestor Viñas-Guasch
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Correspondence to S. H. Annabel Chen.

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Nestor Viñas-Guasch and Tommy Hock Beng Ng contributed equally to this paper.

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Viñas-Guasch, N., Ng, T.H.B., Heng, J.G. et al. Cerebellar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Impairs Visual Working Memory. Cerebellum 22, 332–347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-022-01396-2

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