Can transcranial photobiomodulation improve cognitive function? A systematic review of human studies

Transcranial Photobiomodulation on the Left Prefrontal Cortex Enhances Mandarin Chinese L1 and L2 Complex Sentence Processing Performances

“…Zhao et al (2022) found that 1064-nm tPBM on the right PFC significantly enhanced the visual working memory (WM) capacities in healthy adults and proposed the mediating effect of electrophysiological activities. In addition, tPBM also produced enhancement for attention, executive functions, and other PFC-based abilities according to recent studies (Blanco et al, 2017;Chan et al, 2019;Moghadam et al, 2017; see also Lee et al, 2023 andSalehpour et al, 2019 for systematic review and meta-analysis).…”

Photobiomodulation improves frontal lobe cognitive functions and mental health of older adults with non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment: Case studies

“…Therefore, future studies are needed to recruit more older adults to substantiate the effects of gender in response to tPBM. Finally, there is still no consensus on the optimal treatment protocols for the clinical application of tPBM in different clinical populations, and the dosages and exposure times vary across studies ( Lee et al, 2022 ). For instance, improvements in cognitive functions, improved sleep and mood, reduction in anxiety, and positive changes in daily routine were demonstrated after two 6-min sessions daily with a power density of 23.1 mW/cm 2 for 8 weeks ( Nizamutdinov et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In this study, we investigated the effect of tPBM on three older adults with non-amnestic MCI who demonstrated impairment in the frontal lobe cognitive functions and depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline. Given the positive effects of tPBM on improving inhibitory control and mental flexibility (functions mediated by the frontal lobe) of normal older adults in our recent study ( Chan et al, 2019a ), and the use of tPBM in improving the frontal lobe cognitive functions of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) ( Naeser et al, 2011 , 2014 , 2016 ; Lee et al, 2022 ) and depressive and anxiety symptoms in clinical patients ( Gutiérrez-Menéndez et al, 2020 ), we anticipated that tPBM stimulation would improve the frontal lobe cognitive functions, and depressive and anxiety symptoms of older adults with non-amnestic MCI. These case studies may provide preliminary support for the potential of tPBM as an intervention for individuals with non-amnestic MCI or cognitive dysfunction associated with the frontal lobe.…”

“…Thus, behavior-based interventions generally appear to produce limited improvements in the frontal lobe cognitive functions of normal older adults. In view of this, there is increasing interest in applying transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) as a possible efficient and non-invasive intervention for improving cognitive functions in either normal or clinical populations (for a review, see Chan et al, 2019b ; Lee et al, 2022 ). Previous studies on normal young and older adults have consistently reported that tPBM can significantly improve various aspects of cognitive functions primarily mediated by the frontal lobe, including set-shifting ( Blanco et al, 2017a ), rule-based category learning ( Blanco et al, 2017b ), sustained attention ( Barrett and Gonzalez-Lima, 2013 ; Moghadam et al, 2017 ; Vargas et al, 2017 ), and working memory ( Barrett and Gonzalez-Lima, 2013 ; Vargas et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Although some studies of tPBM suggest that this intervention seems to have positive effects on the frontal lobe cognitive functions of normal adults and patients with traumatic brain injury ( Lee et al, 2022 ), and depressive and anxiety symptoms in patients with psychological disorders ( Gutiérrez-Menéndez et al, 2020 ), its effect on older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of the non-amnestic type remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of tPBM on three older adults with non-amnestic MCI who demonstrated impairment in the frontal lobe cognitive functions and depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline.…”