Enhancing analogic reasoning with rTMS over the left prefrontal cortex

Abstract

The authors utilized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in 16 normal volunteers to investigate the role of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in analogic reasoning. rTMS over the left and right PFC, over the left motor cortex, and sham stimulation over the left PFC were administered during memory and analogic reasoning conditions. rTMS over the left PFC led to a significant reduction in response times only in the analogy condition without affecting accuracy. These results indicate that the left PFC is relevant for analogic reasoning and that rTMS applied to the PFC can speed up solution time.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex enhances working memory

“…Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), introduced nearly 20 years ago, offers a promising alternative for cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals (Luber and Lisanby 2014). While most TMS protocols were originally developed for therapeutic purposes in psychiatry and neurology (Hoy and Fitzgerald 2010;McKinley et al 2012), studies on healthy individuals have demonstrated success in facilitating visual spatial attention (Hilgetag et al 2001;Thut et al 2005), visual search (Hodsoll et al 2009), mental rotation (Klimesch et al 2003), analogical reasoning (Boroojerdi et al 2001), phonological recall (Kirschen et al 2006), and abilities in drawing Young et al 2004), and mathematics, calendar calculating and proofreading (Young et al 2004).…”

Long term delivery of pulsed magnetic fields does not improve learning or alter dendritic spine density in the mouse hippocampus

“…Human studies also support specificity of rTMS for abnormal brain circuits, as a meta-analysis of rTMS effects on cognitive performance found patients tend to improve more than healthy participants 8 . Although some human studies using healthy participants show a single-session of rTMS enhances cognitive task performance, such as analogous reasoning 32 and reaction time 7 , results are mixed, with other studies showing no effect of rTMS on knowledge acquisition 33 or accuracy in a go/no-go task 34 . To our knowledge, there have been no studies assessing cognitive effects of long-term rTMS in patients and healthy controls, which presents a large gap in knowledge.…”

Neurostimulation for traumatic brain injury

“…In healthy subjects, TMS has been suggested to enhance performance in analogical reasoning, 12 recognition memory, 72 and choice-reaction time. 37 Working memory may also be enhanced in a frequency-dependent manner when the midline parietal cortex is stimulated by TMS.…”