TY - JOUR
T1 - Mind the stimulation site
T2 - Enhancing and diminishing sentence comprehension with anodal tDCS
AU - Vergallito, Alessandra
AU - Varoli, Erica
AU - Giustolisi, Beatrice
AU - Cecchetto, Carlo
AU - Del Mauro, Lilia
AU - Romero Lauro, Leonor J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Inc.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - In a previous sham-controlled study, we showed the feasibility of increasing language comprehension in healthy participants by applying anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) over the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). In the present work, we present a follow-up experiment targeting with atDCS the left inferior parietal cortex (LIPC) while participants performed the same auditory comprehension task used in our previous experiment. Both neural sites (LIFG and LIPC) are crucial hubs of Baddeley's model of verbal short-term memory (vSTM). AtDCS over LIPC decreased accuracy as compared to sham and LIFG stimulation, suggesting the involvement of this area in sentence comprehension. Crucially, our results highlighted that applying tDCS over different hubs of the same neural network can lead to opposite behavioural results, with relevant implications from a clinical perspective.
AB - In a previous sham-controlled study, we showed the feasibility of increasing language comprehension in healthy participants by applying anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (atDCS) over the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). In the present work, we present a follow-up experiment targeting with atDCS the left inferior parietal cortex (LIPC) while participants performed the same auditory comprehension task used in our previous experiment. Both neural sites (LIFG and LIPC) are crucial hubs of Baddeley's model of verbal short-term memory (vSTM). AtDCS over LIPC decreased accuracy as compared to sham and LIFG stimulation, suggesting the involvement of this area in sentence comprehension. Crucially, our results highlighted that applying tDCS over different hubs of the same neural network can lead to opposite behavioural results, with relevant implications from a clinical perspective.
KW - Language processing
KW - Sentence comprehension
KW - Syntactic processing
KW - tDCS
KW - Verbal short-term memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078978354&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85078978354&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104757
DO - 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104757
M3 - Article
C2 - 32036293
AN - SCOPUS:85078978354
VL - 204
JO - Brain and Language
JF - Brain and Language
SN - 0093-934X
M1 - 104757
ER -