Anodal tDCS Over the Left DLPFC Did Not Affect the Encoding and Retrieval of Verbal Declarative Information

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 11; p. 452
• Main Authors: de Lara, Gabriel A, Knechtges, Philipp N, Paulus, Walter, Antal, Andrea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 08-08-2017; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Age; Brain research; DLPFC; Electrical stimulation of the brain; ESB; Hypotheses; Memory; Neuroscience; Prefrontal cortex; tDCS; verbal associative learning; verbal long-term memory; Young adults; Germany; verbal associative learning; verbal long-term memory; DLPFC; tDCS
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00452

Several studies imply that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can modulate the formation of verbal episodic memories. The aim of this study was to test if tDCS through a multi-electrode Laplacian montage over the left DLPFC could differentially modulate declarative memory performance depending on the application phase. Two groups of healthy participants (
= 2 × 15) received 1 mA anodal or sham stimulation for 20 min during the encoding or during the recall phase on a delayed cued-recall, using a randomized, double-blinded, repeated-measures experimental design. Memory performance was assessed at two time points: 10 min and 24 h after learning. We found no significant difference between anodal and sham stimulation with regard to the memory scores between conditions (stimulation during encoding or recall) or between time points, suggesting that anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC with these stimulation parameters had no effect on the encoding and the consolidation of associative verbal content.