ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2018, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (6): 647-654.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2018.00647

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

经颅直流电刺激对健康大学生反应抑制的影响 *

王慧慧, 罗玉丹, 石冰, 余凤琼, 汪凯()   

  1. 安徽医科大学医学心理学系, 合肥 230000
  • 收稿日期:2017-05-29 发布日期:2018-04-28 出版日期:2018-06-01
  • 通讯作者: 汪凯 E-mail:wangkai1964@126.com
  • 基金资助:
    省高校自然科学研究重点项目(KJ2016A355);安徽医科大学博士科研基金(XJ201521);国家自然科学基金面上项目(31771222);国家自然科学基金面上项目(31571149);国家自然科学基金面上项目(81771456);基金委重大研究计划集成项目资助(91432301)

Excitation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with transcranial direct current stimulation influences response inhibition

WANG Hui Hui, LUO Yu Dan, SHI Bing, YU Feng Qiong, WANG Kai()   

  1. Department of Medical Psychology, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230000, China
  • Received:2017-05-29 Online:2018-04-28 Published:2018-06-01
  • Contact: WANG Kai E-mail:wangkai1964@126.com

摘要:

拟观察经颅直流电刺激作用于右侧背外侧前额叶皮层前后, 被试在停止信号任务中的行为变化。实验共入组34名正常大学生, 被试前后两次随机接受真刺激和伪刺激, 两次刺激间隔7天, 每个被试在接受刺激前后均完成停止信号任务, 并在每次实验前后完成Stroop色词任务、词语流畅性、数字广度任务。结果发现真刺激作用于右侧背外侧前额叶皮层后停止信号反应时显著减小, 但伪刺激条件下没有该趋势。本实验证明了作用于右侧背外侧前额叶皮层的经颅直流电刺激可以调节反应抑制能力, 右侧背外侧前额叶皮层是反应抑制的重要脑区。

关键词: 反应抑制, 背外侧前额叶皮层, 经颅直流电刺激

Abstract:

Response inhibition is a cognitive process required to cancel an intended movement and can protect from danger. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) studies showed that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is a crucial brain region for response inhibition. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a technique that can determine the contribution of specific cortical regions to behavior. Previous studies have found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dlPFC affects response inhibition. In the current study, we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive, painless brain stimulation technique with no known side effects, to alter neuronal excitability. A number of tDCS studies have suggested that tDCS may affect response inhibition. However, to date, limited work has been done to explore whether tDCS over the right dlPFC could alter response inhibition. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the anodal stimulus effect of tDCS on response inhibition. We hypothesized that exciting the neural activity of the right dlPFC with anodal tDCS would enhance the ability of response inhibition.

A total of 34 healthy subjects (15 males, 19 females) participated in this within-subjects study. Stop-signal task (SST) was established with E-prime software. Participants received both active and sham stimulation on separate days. SST was used to measure the participants’ capacity for response inhibition. In the active stimulation condition, we delivered a 1.5 mA direct current for 25 min (fade-in/fade-out time: 8 s); in the sham condition, we delivered a 1.5 mA direct current for 30 s at the beginning and 30 s at the end of the stimulation time. Anodal and cathodal stimulation electrodes were placed on F4 and FP1, respectively. Participants completed the SST, Stroop color-word matching task, Verbal Fluency test, and Digit Span test before and after the stimulation.

We first calculated the mean reaction time (RT)in the go trials and stop-signal delay for each participant using ANALYZE-IT software. To calculate the individual stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), ANALYZE-IT first computes the mean RTs for all trials without a stop signal and then subtracts the mean stop-signal delay from this value. We performed a series of paired samples t-tests to compare the SSRT of each experimental condition with the SSRT of the sham and active conditions. There were no significant differences in SSRT pre-stimulation in sham or active stimulations, indicating equal response inhibition capacity among the participants. Interestingly, the difference in SSRT before and after stimulation was statistically significant in the active condition, t(33) = -2.25, p < 0.05, Cohens d = 0.38. This demonstrates that participants who received anodal stimulation over the right dlPFC had significantly reduced SSRT change scores on the SST compared to participants in the sham condition.

This study demonstrated that transcranial electrical stimulation of the right dlPFC can regulate response inhibition, in that anodal stimulation improved participants’ response inhibition. We confirm previous work suggesting that the right dlPFC is an important brain region of response inhibition.

Key words: response inhibition, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

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