Trial reportScientific reports2021
Anodal tDCS augments and preserves working memory beyond time-on-task deficits.
Trial report in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Towards optimized methodological parameters for maximizing the behavioral effects of transcranial direct current stimulation.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Trial
- Neural Sensitivity to the Heartbeat Is Modulated by Fluctuations in Affective Arousal during Spontaneous Thought.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Neural sensitivity to the heartbeat is modulated by fluctuations in affective arousal during spontaneous thought.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The Instantaneous Effect and Its Mechanism of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Working Memory Based on Delta and Gamma Band Electroencephalography Characteristics.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Multisession transcranial direct current stimulation and memory-associated cognitive functions in healthy young adults.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Effects of Different Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intensities over Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex on Brain Electrical Activity and Heart Rate Variability in Healthy and Fibromyalgia Women: A Randomized Crossover Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- TDCS over PPC or DLPFC does not improve visual working memory capacity.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Enhancement of prefrontal functional connectivity under the influence of concurrent physical load during mental tasks.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Article
- Neuroethical considerations and attitudes about neurostimulation as a fatigue countermeasure among emergency responders.Frontiers in neuroergonomics · 2024Article
- Acute combined effects of concurrent physical activities on autonomic nervous activation during cognitive tasks.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Meta-modeling the effects of anodal left prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation on working memory performance.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Effects of repetitive twice-weekly transcranial direct current stimulations on fatigue and fatigability in people with multiple sclerosis.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Reinterpreting published tDCS results in terms of a cranial and cervical nerve co-stimulation mechanism.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Boosting working memory: uncovering the differential effects of tDCS and tACS.Cerebral cortex communications · 2022Article
- The therapeutic potential of non-invasive brain stimulation for the treatment of Long-COVID-related cognitive fatigue.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been shown to promote working memory (WM), however, its efficacy against time-on-task-related performance decline and associated cognitive fatigue remains uncertain. This study examined the impact of anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC on performance during a fatiguing visuospatial WM test. We adopted a repeated measures design, where 32 healthy adults (16 female), underwent anodal, control and sham tDCS on separate days. They completed an hour long two-back test, with stimulation intensity, onset, and duration set at 1 mA, at the 20th minute for 10 minutes respectively. Task performance, subjective responses, and heart rate variability (HRV) were captured during the experiment. Anodal tDCS substantially improved WM relative to sham tDCS and control in both sexes. These benefits lasted beyond the stimulation interval, and were unique across performance measures. However, no perceptual changes in subjective effort or fatigue levels were noted between conditions, although participants reported greater discomfort during stimulation. While mood and sleepiness changed with time-on-task, reflecting fatigue, these were largely similar across conditions. HRV increased under anodal tDCS and control, and plateaued under sham tDCS. We found that short duration anodal tDCS at 1 mA was an effective countermeasure to time-on-task deficits during a visuospatial two-back task, with enhancement and preservation of WM capacity. However, these improvements were not available at a perceptual level. Therefore, wider investigations are necessary to determine "how" such solutions will be operationalized in the field, especially within human-centered systems.
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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.