ArticleScience advances2020
The peripheral effect of direct current stimulation on brain circuits involving memory.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05289804 (Diminishing Accelerated Long-term Forgetting in Mild Cognitive Impairment), which is not on this map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Diminishing Accelerated Long-term Forgetting in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Study Protocol for a Prospective, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of transcranial direct-current stimulation effects on cognitive function in patients with Alzheimer's disease.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Potential Delayed Positive Effects of tDCS on Improving Introspective Accuracy in Social Cognition in Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2025Trial
- Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation Reduces Network Hypersynchrony and Persistent Vertigo.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2021Trial
- Addiction history moderates the effect of prefrontal 10-Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation on habitual action selection.Journal of neurophysiology · 2021Trial
- Sex Does Matter! The Influence of Sex on Outcomes of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).Cells · 2026Review
- Elevating cerebellar theta oscillations boosts noninvasively induced motor plasticity.Science advances · 2026Article
- Neuronal effects of epicranial current stimulation in macaque cortex.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Evidence of physiological changes associated with single-session pre-frontal tDCS: a pilot study.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- tDCS peripheral nerve stimulation can enhance passive avoidance learning in rats.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Understanding novel neuromodulation pathways in tDCS: brain stem recordings in rats during trigeminal nerve direct current stimulation.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Bioelectronic Direct Current Stimulation at the Transition Between Reversible and Irreversible Charge Transfer.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Modal Analysis of Cerebrovascular Effects for Digital Health Integration of Neurostimulation Therapies-A Review of Technology Concepts.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Stimulating prefrontal cortex facilitates training transfer by increasing representational overlap.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Article
- Temporal Dynamics of Adverse Effects across Five Sessions of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Development, Insults and Predisposing Factors of the Brain's Predictive Coding System to Chronic Perceptual Disorders-A Life-Course Examination.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Effects of online and offline trigeminal nerve stimulation on visuomotor learning.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Let's Shape Learning Into Lasting Memories.Neuroscience insights · 2024Article
- Article
- Treatment of cognitive and mood disorders secondary to traumatic brain injury by the association of bilateral occipital nerve stimulation and a combined protocol of multisite repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and cognitive training: A case report.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Individual response to transcranial direct current stimulation as a function of working memory capacity and electrode montage.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
An ongoing debate surrounding transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the scalp is whether it modulates brain activity both directly and in a regionally constrained manner enough to positively affect symptoms in patients with neurological disorders. One alternative explanation is that direct current stimulation affects neural circuits mainly indirectly, i.e., via peripheral nerves. Here, we report that noninvasive direct current stimulation indirectly affects neural circuits via peripheral nerves. In a series of studies, we show that direct current stimulation can cause activation of the greater occipital nerve (ON-tDCS) and augments memory via the ascending fibers of the occipital nerve to the locus coeruleus, promoting noradrenaline release. This noradrenergic pathway plays a key role in driving hippocampal activity by modifying functional connectivity supporting the consolidation of a memory event.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.