Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

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
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.435002
Miles Wischnewski
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: mwischne@umn.edu
Kathleen E. Mantell
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alexander Opitz
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States of America
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

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.

Highlights

  • - We summarize the effect of 87 tDCS studies on working memory performance

  • - We introduce a new meta-analytic method correlating tDCS electric fields and performance

  • - tDCS-induced electric fields in lower DLPFC correlate significantly with improved working memory

  • - The lower DLPFC was not maximally targeted by most tDCS montages and we provide an optimized montage

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted March 11, 2021.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Identifying regions in prefrontal cortex related to working memory improvement: a novel meta-analytic method using electric field modeling
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
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
bioRxiv 2021.03.11.435002; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.435002
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
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
bioRxiv 2021.03.11.435002; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.11.435002

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4838)
  • Biochemistry (10738)
  • Bioengineering (8014)
  • Bioinformatics (27179)
  • Biophysics (13938)
  • Cancer Biology (11083)
  • Cell Biology (15987)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (8758)
  • Ecology (13238)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (17315)
  • Genetics (11665)
  • Genomics (15885)
  • Immunology (10991)
  • Microbiology (25995)
  • Molecular Biology (10608)
  • Neuroscience (56351)
  • Paleontology (417)
  • Pathology (1728)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2999)
  • Physiology (4529)
  • Plant Biology (9589)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1610)
  • Synthetic Biology (2671)
  • Systems Biology (6960)
  • Zoology (1507)