ArticleBrain stimulation2012
Task-specific facilitation of cognition by cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation of the cerebellum.
Article in Brain stimulation, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 102 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
102 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Probing the linguistic cerebellum: a qualitative review of the effects of cerebellar neurostimulation on language processing.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Cerebellar Contributions to Proactive and Reactive Control in the Stop Signal Task: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies.Neuropsychology review · 2020Pooled it
- Cerebral Cortical Activity Following Non-invasive Cerebellar Stimulation-a Systematic Review of Combined TMS and EEG Studies.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2020Pooled it
- Targeting the Human Cerebellum with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Modulate Behavior: a Meta-Analysis.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2018Pooled it
- Cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation improves quality of life in individuals with chronic poststroke aphasia.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Brain age prediction in stroke patients: Highly reliable but limited sensitivity to cognitive performance and response to cognitive training.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2020Trial
- The Cerebellum Modulates Attention Network Functioning: Evidence from a Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Attention Network Test Study.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2019Trial
- What Do We Know About the Influence of the Cerebellum on Walking Ability? Promising Findings from Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2017Trial
- Modulating human procedural learning by cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2013Trial
- White matter predictors of cerebellar tDCS treatment effects in aphasia rehabilitation.Frontiers in neurologyTrial
- Polarity-dependent modulation of sensory circuits by cerebellar tDCS: local and distant effects.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Exploring the Effects of a Computerized Naming Intervention Combined with Cerebellar tDCS in Cantonese-Speaking Individuals with Aphasia.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Cerebellar tDCS Modulates Corticocortical Functional Networks in a Regionally Specific Manner.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Recognising Emotions from the Voice: A tDCS and fNIRS Double-Blind Study on the Role of the Cerebellum in Emotional Prosody.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Neural dissociation of attention and working memory through inhibitory control.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Concurrent Bilateral M1 and Anodal Cerebellar tDCS Effects on Learning of a Bimanual Video Game Task.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Polarity-dependent modulation of sensory circuits by cerebellar tDCS: local and distant effects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Effects of Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Cerebellar Brain Inhibition as a Function of TMS Coil Orientation.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Cerebello-Cerebral Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Poststroke Aphasia.Brain connectivity · 2025Article
42 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
A role for the cerebellum in cognition is controversial, but it is a view that is becoming increasingly popular. The aim of the current study was to investigate this issue using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) during two cognitive tasks that require comparable motor skills, but different levels of working memory and attention. Three groups of twenty-two participants each performed the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) and a novel variant of this task called the Paced Auditory Serial Subtraction Task (PASST), together with a verb generation task and its two controls, before and after the modulation of cortico-cerebellar connectivity using anodal or cathodal tDCS over the cerebellum. Participants' performance in the difficult PASST task significantly improved after cathodal stimulation compared to sham or anodal stimulation. Improvement in the easier PASAT was equal across all three stimulation conditions. Improvement in verbal response latencies were also greatest during the PASST task after cathodal stimulation, compared to sham and anodal stimulation, and became less variable. Results for the verb generation task complimented those for the PASST, such that the rate and consistency of participants' verbal responses were facilitated by cathodal stimulation, compared to sham and anodal stimulation. These findings suggest that DC stimulation over the right cerebellum affects working memory and attention differently depending on task difficulty. They support a role for the cerebellum in cognitive aspects of behaviour, whereby activity in the prefrontal cortex is likely dis-inhibited by cathodal tDCS stimulation over the right cerebellar cortex, which normally exerts an overall inhibitory tone on the cerebral cortex. We speculate that the cerebellum is capable of releasing cognitive resources by dis-inhibition of prefrontal regions of cerebral cortex, enhancing performance when tasks become demanding.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.