ArticleNeuroImage2015
The strategy and motivational influences on the beneficial effect of neurostimulation: a tDCS and fNIRS study.
Article in NeuroImage, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
46 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis of the acute effects of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation on athletic performance.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Pooled it
- Identifying regions in prefrontal cortex related to working memory improvement: A novel meta-analytic method using electric field modeling.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Cognitive Performance and Cerebral Oxygen Hemodynamics: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of the interval-between-sessions on prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on cognitive outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2016Pooled it
- Modulation of prefrontal functional connectivity by tDCS over the left DLPFC predicts performance enhancement in swimmers: a simultaneous tDCS-fNIRS, double-blind, sham-controlled crossover study.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Trial
- Anodal tDCS augments and preserves working memory beyond time-on-task deficits.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Impact of tDCS on working memory training is enhanced by strategy instructions in individuals with low working memory capacity.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Transcranial direct current stimulation and working memory: Comparison of effect on learning shapes and English letters.PloS one · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Individual differences in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology predict effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation.Brain stimulationTrial
- The ethical, legal and social issues of neuroergonomics in the workplace.Frontiers in neuroergonomics · 2026Article
- Research progress on transcranial direct current stimulation for improving muscle strength: a narrative review.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Review
- Do Progressive Intensities of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation with and Without 40 Hz Binaural Beats Change Pre-Frontal Cortex Hemodynamics? A Randomized Controlled Trial.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Physiological Mechanisms of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to Enhance Motor Performance: A Narrative Review.Biology · 2024Review
- Meta-modeling the effects of anodal left prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory performance.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Self-administered transcranial direct current stimulation treatment of knee osteoarthritis alters pain-related fNIRS connectivity networks.Neurophotonics · 2023Article
- Effects of Multisession Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Long-term Memory and Working Memory in Older Adults.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2022Article
- Individual predictors and electrophysiological signatures of working memory enhancement in aging.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- tDCS over the left prefrontal Cortex improves mental flexibility and inhibition in geriatric inpatients with symptoms of depression or anxiety: A pilot randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2022Article
- Older adults with lower working memory capacity benefit from transcranial direct current stimulation when combined with working memory training: A preliminary study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Working memory (WM) capacity falls along a spectrum with some people demonstrating higher and others lower WM capacity. Efforts to improve WM include applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), in which small amounts of current modulate the activity of underlying neurons and enhance cognitive function. However, not everyone benefits equally from a given tDCS protocol. Recent findings revealed tDCS-related WM benefits for individuals with higher working memory (WM) capacity. Here, we test two hypotheses regarding those with low WM capacity to see if they too would benefit under more optimal conditions. We tested whether supplying a WM strategy (Experiment 1) or providing greater extrinsic motivation through incentives (Experiment 2) would restore tDCS benefit to the low WM capacity group. We also employed functional near infrared spectroscopy to monitor tDCS-induced changes in neural activity. Experiment 1 demonstrated that supplying a WM strategy improved the high WM capacity participants' accuracy and the amount of oxygenated blood levels following anodal tDCS, but it did not restore tDCS-linked WM benefits to the low WM capacity group. Experiment 2 demonstrated that financial motivation enhanced performance in both low and high WM capacity groups, especially after anodal tDCS. Here, only the low WM capacity participants showed a generalized increase in oxygenated blood flow across both low and high motivation conditions. These results indicate that ensuring that participants' incentives are high may expand cognitive benefits associated with tDCS. This finding is relevant for translational work using tDCS in clinical populations, in which motivation can be a concern.
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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.