Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation over right posterior parietal cortex on attention function in healthy young adults

Abstract

Attention involves three distinct networks for alerting, orienting, and executive control. Interventions targeting the specific attentional networks remain lacking. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to modulate cortical excitability, which potentially serves as an interventional tool to treat individuals with attention impairment.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of applying tDCS over the right posterior parietal cortex (PPC) on the performance of the three attentional networks.

26 healthy young adults performed the Attention Network Test (ANT) before and after anodal or sham tDCS stimulation over the right PPC. The alerting, orienting, and executive effects were assessed before and after the stimulation. The results demonstrated that the orienting effect was significantly improved after real tDCS relative to sham, whereas the alerting and executive control effects remained unaffected. Consistent with previous clinical and functional imaging studies, this suggests that the right PPC is actively engaged with the spatial orienting of attention.

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