Decreasing propensity to mind-wander with transcranial direct current stimulation

Kajimura, Shogo; Nomura, Michio

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.07.013

Cited by 51 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The possibility that attentional mechanisms, such as distractibility, might mediate the effects of tDCS has particular implications for treating attentional symptoms of depression. Two previous studies reported increased mind-wandering (task-unrelated thoughts) under anodal tDCS of the DLPFC (Axelrod et al , 2015) and left PFC (Kajimura and Nomura, 2015), although in our study this effect narrowly missed statistical significance. However, the relationship between the recently-described effect of tDCS on self-reported mind-wandering (Axelrod et al , 2015) and its putative antidepressant effects has so far been unexplored.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 93%

“…Instead, distraction has been shown to alleviate depressed mood, potentially through alleviation of rumination (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1993). If tDCS does indeed increase mind-wandering (Axelrod et al , 2015, Kajimura and Nomura, 2015), this could provide a second possible mechanism for its antidepressant effects: an increase in distractibility.…”

Section: Hot and Cold Cognition In Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prefrontal cortex stimulation does not affect emotional bias, but may slow emotion identification

Nord

Forster

Halahakoon

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has recently garnered attention as a putative depression treatment. However, the cognitive mechanisms by which it exerts an antidepressant effect are unclear: tDCS may directly alter ‘hot’ emotional processing biases, or alleviate depression through changes in ‘cold’ (non-emotional) cognitive function. Here, 75 healthy participants performed a facial emotion identification task during 20 minutes of anodal or sham tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in a double-blind, within-subject crossover design. A subset of 31 participants additionally completed a task measuring attentional distraction during stimulation. Compared to sham stimulation, anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC resulted in an increase in response latency across all emotional conditions. Bayesian analysis showed definitively that tDCS exerted no emotion-dependent effect on behaviour. Thus, we demonstrate that anodal tDCS produces a general, rather than an emotion-specific, effect. We also report a preliminary finding in the subset of participants who completed the distractibility task: increased distractibility during active stimulation correlated significantly with the degree to which tDCS slowed emotion identification. Our results provide insight into the possible mechanisms by which DLPFC tDCS may treat symptoms of depression, suggesting that it may not alter emotional biases, but instead may affect ‘cold’ cognitive processes.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 93%

Section: Hot and Cold Cognition In Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prefrontal cortex stimulation does not affect emotional bias, but may slow emotion identification

Nord

Forster

Halahakoon

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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“…The areas involved in mind-wandering, and those typically involved in the DMN and frontoparietal-control network, are shown in Figure I (taken from [35]). The idea that frontal executive-control regions are involved in mind-wandering is also supported by recent studies showing that transcranial-direct-current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the lateral prefrontal cortex can modulate the amount of reported mind-wandering [33,98]. …”

Section: A Framework For Understanding Intentional and Unintentional mentioning

confidence: 99%

Mind-Wandering With and Without Intention

Seli

Risko

Smilek

et al. 2016

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

333

269

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The past decade has seen a surge of research examining mind-wandering, but most of this research has not considered the potential importance of distinguishing between intentional and unintentional mind-wandering. However, a recent series of papers has demonstrated that mind-wandering reported in empirical investigations frequently occurs with and without intention, and more critically, that intentional and unintentional mind-wandering are dissociable. This emerging literature suggests that to increase clarity in the literature, there is a need to reconsider the bulk of the mind-wandering literature with an eye toward deconvolving these two different cognitive experiences. In this review, we highlight recent trends in investigations of the intentionality of mind-wandering and outline a novel theoretical framework regarding the mechanisms underlying intentional and unintentional mind-wandering.

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“…One study found that cathodal tDCS to the right parietal cortex increased the effect of task-irrelevant flanker stimuli on performance, specifically for difficult searches (Weiss and Lavidor 2012). Another study was unable to replicate this result, but found that in fact anodal tDCS decreased the flanker effect for easy searches (Kajimura and Nomura 2015). These inconsistencies could be due to a difference in stimulation timing-Weiss and Lavidor (2012) applied online tDCS; Kajimura and Nomura (2015) stimulated offline-but otherwise these two studies used highly similar tasks and stimulation protocols.…”

Section: Visual Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another study was unable to replicate this result, but found that in fact anodal tDCS decreased the flanker effect for easy searches (Kajimura and Nomura 2015). These inconsistencies could be due to a difference in stimulation timing-Weiss and Lavidor (2012) applied online tDCS; Kajimura and Nomura (2015) stimulated offline-but otherwise these two studies used highly similar tasks and stimulation protocols. The largest and most consistent effects of tDCS on visual search processes hail from a series of studies by Clark and colleagues.…”

Section: Visual Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation as a Tool to Enhance Attention

et al. 2017

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Attention is a fundamental cognitive process-without it, we would be helplessly adrift in an overload of sensory input. There is considerable interest in techniques that can be used to enhance attention, including transcranial electrical stimulation (tES). We present an overview of 52 studies that have paired attention tasks with tES, mostly in the form of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In particular, we discuss four aspects of attention that have been most extensively targeted to date: visual search, spatial orienting (e.g., Posner cueing tasks), spatial bias (e.g., line bisection tasks), and sustained attention. Some promising results have been reported in each of these domains. However, drawing general conclusions about the efficacy of tES is at present hampered by a large diversity in study design and inconsistent findings. We highlight some pitfalls and opportunities and suggest how these may be addressed in future research aiming to use tES as a tool to enhance or test theoretical hypotheses about attention.

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Decreasing propensity to mind-wander with transcranial direct current stimulation

Cited by 51 publications

References 32 publications

Prefrontal cortex stimulation does not affect emotional bias, but may slow emotion identification

Prefrontal cortex stimulation does not affect emotional bias, but may slow emotion identification

Mind-Wandering With and Without Intention

Transcranial Electrical Stimulation as a Tool to Enhance Attention

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