RT Journal Article
T1 Opposite pattern of transcranial direct current stimulation effects in middle-aged and older adults: behavioral and neurophysiological evidence
A1 Bagattini, Chiara
A1 Cid Fernández, Susana
A1 Bulgari, Martina
A1 Miniussi, Carlo
A1 Bortoletto, Marta
K1 Transcranial direct current stimulation
K1 Aging
K1 Episodic memory
K1 Event-related potentials
K1 Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
AB Introduction: Episodic memory (EM) exhibits an age-related decline, with overall increased impairment after the age of 65. The application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to ameliorate cognitive decline in ageing has been extensively investigated, but its efficacy has been reported with mixed results. In this study, we aimed to assess whether age contributes to interindividual variability in tDCS efficacy.Methods: Thirty-eight healthy adults between 50 and 81 years old received anodal tDCS over the left prefrontal cortex during images encoding and then performed an EM recognition task while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded.Results: Our results showed an opposite pattern of effect between  middle-aged (50–64 years) and older (65–81 years) adults. Specifically, performance in the recognition task after tDCS was enhanced in older adults and was worsened in middle-aged adults. Moreover, ERPs acquired during the recognition task showed that two EM components related to familiarity and post-retrieval monitoring, i.e., Early Frontal and Late Frontal Old-New effects, respectively, were significantly reduced in middle-aged adults after anodal tDCS.Discussion: These results support an age-dependent effect of prefrontal tDCS on EM processes and its underlying electrophysiological substrate, with opposing modulatory trajectories along the aging lifespan.
PB Frontiers Media
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30546
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30546
LA eng
NO Bagattini C, Cid-Fernández S, Bulgari M, Miniussi C and Bortoletto M (2023) Opposite pattern of transcranial direct current stimulation effects in middle-aged and older adults: behavioral and neurophysiological evidence. Front. Aging Neurosci. 15:1087749
NO This study was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health Ricerca Finalizzata to CM (RF-2013-02356444) and Ricerca Corrente. SC-F was founded by Galician Postdoctoral Grants Plan (ED481B 2016/078-0, Xunta de Galicia)
DS Minerva
RD 27 abr 2026