Anodal tDCS applied during multitasking training leads to transferable performance gains.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuromodulation

Background:

• Cognitive training typically yields task-specific improvements.
• Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) may broaden training benefits to untrained tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of tDCS combined with multitasking training on cognitive performance.
• To assess the transfer of training effects to untrained tasks, including multitasking, response inhibition, and spatial attention.

Main Methods:

• Healthy adults underwent four days of cognitive training with concurrent left prefrontal cortex tDCS (anodal, cathodal, or sham).
• Performance was evaluated on trained and untrained multitasking, go/no-go inhibition, and visual search tasks before, immediately after, and two weeks post-training.

Main Results:

• Anodal tDCS combined with training significantly enhanced performance on the untrained multitasking paradigm and visual search tasks compared to sham or cathodal tDCS.
• No significant training benefits were observed for the go/no-go response inhibition task.

Conclusions:

• Anodal tDCS paired with multitasking training can improve performance on related untrained multitasking tasks and enhance spatial attention.
• The cognitive benefits of this combined approach do not generalize to response inhibition.
• This suggests targeted neuromodulation can broaden specific cognitive training effects.