Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2017
Effects of Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Serotonergic Enhancement on Memory Performance in Young and Older Adults.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02092974 (Mechanism of tDCS-induced Learning Enhancement - the Role of Serotonin), which is not on this map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 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.
Mechanism of tDCS-induced Learning Enhancement - the Role of Serotonin
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- New Methods, Old Brains-A Systematic Review on the Effects of tDCS on the Cognition of Elderly People.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Applications to Memory in Healthy Aging.Frontiers in neurology · 2020Pooled it
- Impact of 3-Day Combined Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation-Visuospatial Training on Object-Location Memory in Healthy Older Adults and Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2020Trial
- tDCS-induced episodic memory enhancement and its association with functional network coupling in older adults.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Multimodal imaging-based targeting approach for network-level brain stimulation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- ADAS-Cog Trajectories Differ from Expected Decline in Dementia Following Repeated Non-Invasive Interventions over 3 Years.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Identification of Reliable Target Brain Regions for Enhancing Object-Location Memory by Brain Stimulation.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Failure modes and mitigations for Bayesian optimization of neuromodulation parameters.Journal of neural engineering · 2025Review
- No Object-Location Memory Improvement through Focal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation over the Right Temporoparietal Cortex.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Neuromodulatory effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on cue reactivity and craving in young adults with internet gaming disorder: an event-related potential study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Transcranial Electrical Stimulation for Associative Memory Enhancement: State-of-the-Art from Basic to Clinical Research.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Enhancement of task-switching performance with transcranial direct current stimulation over the right lateral prefrontal cortex.Experimental brain research · 2021Article
- Dosage-Dependent Impact of Acute Serotonin Enhancement on Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Effects.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Can accelerated transcranial direct current stimulation improve memory functions? An experimental, placebo-controlled study.Heliyon · 2020Article
- Adult neuroplasticity: A new “cure” for major depression?Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2019Article
- Modulating Reconsolidation With Non-invasive Brain Stimulation-Where We Stand and Future Directions.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- No Effects of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation on Multiple Sessions of Object-Location-Memory Training in Healthy Older Adults.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2017Article
- Impact of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Neuronal Functions.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the absence of effective therapies for dementia and its precursors, enhancing neuroplasticity by means of non-invasive brain stimulation such as anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) might be a promising approach to counteract or delay the onset of cognitive decline, but effect sizes have been moderate so far. Previous reports indicate that increasing serotonin levels may enhance atDCS-induced neuroplasticity. However, evidence for serotonergic modulation of atDCS effects on memory is still lacking. Here, we conducted a double-blind, randomized, sham-/placebo-controlled trial to investigate the impact of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI; single dose of 20 mg citalopram) and atDCS over the right temporoparietal cortex (1 mA, 20 min) on memory formation. Twenty young and 20 older subjects completed an object-location learning task in each of the four conditions: sham+placebo, sham+SSRI, atDCS+placebo, and atDCS+SSRI. Outcome measures were performance in immediate (primary outcome) and delayed cued recall. While we found an SSRI effect, but no statistically significant effect of atDCS on immediate recall scores, young and older adults benefited most from the combined application (comparisons: atDCS+SSRI>atDCS+placebo and atDCS+SSRI>sham+placebo). Thus, our data provide evidence that atDCS improves memory formation if serotonergic neurotransmission is enhanced simultaneously. Further studies are needed to assess whether these findings extend to clinical populations with memory impairment and translate into clinically relevant improvements after long-term serotonergic enhancement and repeated stimulation.
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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.