Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34418436›Full record

SynthesisNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2021

Identifying regions in prefrontal cortex related to working memory improvement: A novel meta-analytic method using electric field modeling.

Miles Wischnewski, Kathleen E Mantell, Alexander Opitz

Abstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
37citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

37 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  5. Pooled it
  6. Prefrontal cortex stimulation prevents stress-induced HPA axis reactivity in people at familial risk of schizophrenia.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025
    Trial
  7. Trial
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  9. Multisession tDCS combined with intrastimulation training improves emotion recognition in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics · 2024
    Trial
  10. Cortical thickness is related to working memory performance after non-invasive brain stimulation.Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologica · 2023
    Trial
  11. Article
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  13. Review
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  18. Causal functional maps of brain rhythms in working memory.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Miles WischnewskiDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States. Electronic address: mwischne@umn.edu.
Kathleen E MantellDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Alexander OpitzDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.

Funding

An open software solution to integrate non-invasive brain stimulation with functional imaging dataRF1MH117428 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · PI OPITZ, ALEXANDER · 2019 to 2019
$1.4M
NIMH NIH HHS RF1 MH117428
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Altering cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to improve working memory (WM) performance. Due to large inter-experimental variability in the tDCS montage configuration and strength of induced electric fields, results have been mixed. Here, we present a novel meta-analytic method relating behavioral effect sizes to electric field strength to identify brain regions underlying largest tDCS-induced WM improvement. Simulations on 69 studies targeting left prefrontal cortex showed that tDCS electric field strength in lower dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) relates most strongly to improved WM performance. This region explained 7.8 % of variance, equaling a medium effect. A similar region was identified when correlating WM performance and electric field strength of right prefrontal tDCS studies (n = 18). Maximum electric field strength of five previously used tDCS configurations were outside of this location. We thus propose a new tDCS montage which maximizes the tDCS electric field strength in that brain region. Our findings can benefit future tDCS studies that aim to affect WM function.

Indexed as

Memory, Short-TermTranscranial Direct Current StimulationBrainCognitionHumansPrefrontal CortexElectric field modelingNeuromodulationPrefrontal cortexTranscranial direct current stimulationWorking memory

Identifiers

PMID34418436
PMCPMC8511213

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.