Supported by RF Government grant contract No.14.W03.31.0010. We wish to thank Ekatarina Perikova and Alexander Kirsanov for their support in preparing this publication. We are grateful to Olga Shcherbakova and Margarita Filippova for their help in stimulus selection and to Anastasia Safronova and Pavel Inozemcev for their assistance in the production of video materials.

All procedures were approved by the local research ethics committee of St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, with consent obtained from all participants.
NOTE: All participants must sign the informed consent and fill in a questionnaire to attest the absence of any contraindications for tDCS stimulation (see Technique and Considerations in the Use of 4 x 1 Ring High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) by Willamar and colleagues12) and to collect other data relevant to the study such as vision acuity, demographics, language experience and handedness. For the latter, the seminal work by Oldfield13 is recommended.
1. Subjects and experimental environment
<ol>
	<li>In a typical language experiment, ensure that all subjects are right-handed and have no record of language deficits, neurological or psychiatric disorders. Their native language and bilingual/multilingual status must be controlled.</li>
	<li>Conduct all measurements in a sound-proof or at least sound-attenuated chamber. Sound insulation is very important, since any extraneous sound, noise, human speech, etc. can significantly affect the performance and thus influence the data (Figure 1).</li>
	<li>To avoid interference by unnecessary subject-experimenter contact, place only the screen, headphones/speakers and any input devices (keyboard, button boxes) inside the chamber. Have all interaction with the experimenter over intercom unless personal contact is required.</li>
	<li>Use the following optimal parameters, based on extensive piloting, for background color and font size: grey background color (RGB: 125, 125, 125), black text color (RGB: 0; 0; 0), Arial font face, size 27.</li>
	<li>To reduce delays and jitter in visual presentation, use a video card and a monitor with a refresh rate of 100 Hz and higher.</li>
	<li>To measure reaction times, use research-grade response pads, which have better ergonomics and more precise timing in comparison with conventional keyboards.</li>
</ol>
2. Stimulus preparation
<ol>
	<li>Choose words of the language in question, which are controlled for their duration, lexical frequency and overall structure (to avoid any basic effects of surface stimulus properties on higher-level processing). Here, all base words were eight phonemes/letters long and consisted of three syllables with the CVCCVCVC structure (where C is consonant, and V is vowel).</li>
	<li>To create multiple lists, divide the words into sets, which should not differ statistically (as measured with, e.g.,&#160;t-tests) on their lemma, bigram and/or trigram as well as&#160;syllabic frequency. These can be obtained from language-specific psycholinguistic databases; here, Russian National Corpus was used (http://www.ruscorpora.ru/en/). Here, one set was used&#160;for creating (through modification) orthographically similar novel words and pseudowords, another set for creating unrelated control pseudowords, and a&#160;further set used as unrelated control words (Figure 2A). This led to&#160;five sets of 10 items each (50 stimuli in total). Modify these procedures in accordance with your exact experimental requirements.</li>
	<li>To minimize any effects of surface forms on newly acquired semantics, counterbalance the sets across the subject sample, such that they play different experimental roles for different subjects.</li>
	<li>Create novel word forms such that they follow the rules of phonology and phonotactics and resemble existing words in terms of orthographic and phonological structure. 
	NOTE: To make sure that the new words can enter into competition with existing words, the current procedures were based on those developed in a series of experiments by Gaskell and colleagues11,14 and aimed at keeping the word onsets (CVCCV-) stable, while rotating their offsets (-CVC) across different items in the set. That is, we preserved the first two syllables of an existing word and varied&#160;the ultimate syllable such that a new, previously unfamiliar novel word form was created (e.g., mandarin -&#62; mandanal*, where the last CVC was taken from another word in the list, cardinal, to create a new item).</li>
	<li>Repeat the procedure described above for creating as many novel word forms as needed. For the current demonstration, we&#160;created&#160;lists of novel word forms to be learnt and of similar unlearnt pseudowords&#160;(e.g. mandarin -&#62; mandanal*, mandaket*, all three potentially entering into a lexical competition post-learning, as neighbors) as well as further control lists of real words and novel pseudowords that did not share this similarity and thus would not produce a lexical competition with the main stimuli&#160;(e.g., circular, muskenal*; Russian examples are used throughout, transliterated from Cyrillic to Latin script for ease of understanding).</li>
</ol>
3. Sentence stimuli for contextual semantic learning
<ol>
	<li>Create novel meanings to be associated with the new words in the process of learning. This could be made-up, obsolete or rare objects or concepts not present in the subjects&#39; native language or culture.</li>
	<li>For contextual learning of novel semantics, the procedures used by&#160;Mestrez-Misse and colleagues15 are&#160;recommended. Create several unique sentences that describe situations through which one can understand the meaning of each of the novel words (e.g., &#34;To control insects in medieval times, people used mandaket&#34;). Use a sequence of such sentences for each of the novel words (here, a total of 5 sentences per word), and&#160;gradually reveal the meaning of each new concept from a more general to more specific sentential context.</li>
	<li>Present novel words ideally in their dictionary form (i.e., uninflected, e.g., singular nominative or accusative case in Russian), such that the surface form is not inflected differently in different sentences (Table 1), unless inflection rule learning is also required.</li>
	<li>Control and balance the length of the sentences and the number of words between conditions. Here, each sentence consisted of 8 words. Always place novel words at the end of the sentences. Such placement allows build-up of necessary contextual information (further, this allows implementing this design, if needed, in an EEG or MEG setting to record evoked brain responses unmasked by further word stimuli).</li>
	<li>Present word-specific sentences in word-specific sub-blocks, gradually revealing the meaning of each new word, without interleaving or randomizing sentences related to different novel words.</li>
	<li>Randomize the order of the sub-blocks across the subject group. Word-by-word sentence presentation is recommended if the visual modality is used.</li>
	<li>Determine the interstimulus interval based on specific stimulus properties to allow their convenient presentation (Figure 2B); make sure to separate different sub-blocks with additional intervals and give regular breaks.</li>
</ol>
4. Tasks to assess acquisition of new word forms and novel meanings
NOTE: Use several tasks to assess different levels of acquisition and comprehension of both surface word forms and lexical semantics. Five tasks are used in the present protocol: free recall, cued recognition, lexical decision, semantic definition and semantic matching. The tasks are applied in the order they are listed below, which was optimized to reduce any carryover between successive tasks.
<ol>
	<li>In the free recall task, have each participant reproduce as many new word forms as they could remember by typing them into the prepared spreadsheet. The instruction is as follows: &#34;Please write down in the column all the new words that you can remember.&#34;</li>
	<li>Include the same stimuli in the recognition and lexical decision (second and third tasks, respectively) and use the same presentation rate.
	<ol>
		<li>These tasks include all items (novel words, real competitor words the novel ones are derived from, untrained pseudoword competitors derived from the same real words, unrelated control pseudowords and unrelated control existing words).</li>
		<li>For the recognition task, use the following instruction: &#34;You will be presented with words sequentially. Press button &#34;1&#34; with the middle finger of the left hand if you have encountered the word during the experiment, or press &#34;2&#34; with the index finger of the left hand if you have not.&#34; Modify the response coding, hand and fingers in accordance with your specific requirements.</li>
		<li>The instruction for the lexical decision task is: &#34;You will be presented with real and meaningless words sequentially. Press &#34;1&#34; with the middle finger of the left hand if the word makes sense, or press &#34;2&#34; with the index finger of the left hand if it does not.&#34; Modify these as necessary.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Use the semantic definition task to estimate the acquisition of novel meaning and the correspondence between the meaning and the surface form.
	<ol>
		<li>Give participants a list of the learnt items (i.e., those presented previously in the learning phase) with the instruction above: &#34;Here is a list of new words presented to you previously. Try to define each of them and type their definitions into the spreadsheet&#34;.</li>
		<li>To assess the completeness and accuracy of the given definitions, engage independent experts to rate the responses; agreement between experts could be tested using, e.g., Kendall&#39;s coefficient of concordance (W).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Use semantic matching task to assess the acquisition of semantics through making explicit links between the newly learnt word forms and their meanings in a simplified manner.
	<ol>
		<li>Use the following instruction: &#34;You will be presented a word and three definitions. You should choose one correct definition for each word by pressing the corresponding button&#34;. Only one of the definitions is correct, with the other two corresponding to the other novel items. In addition to the three optional definitions, including &#34;none of this&#34; or/and &#34;not sure&#34; options is also recommended.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
5. Procedures
<ol>
	<li>Ensure that the tDCS stimulation precedes the behavioral task it is intended to modulate.
	<ol>
		<li>Wernicke&#39;s area. 
		NOTE: The stimulation electrode placement that best corresponds to Wernicke&#39;s area is CP5 according to the extended International 10-20 system for EEG16,17.
		<ol>
			<li>To locate this location in the absence of an electrode cap, follow the standard 10-20 system procedures.</li>
			<li>Measure the head with a tape from the inion to the nasion, and note the middle of this distance. Then, measure the distance from the left preauricular point to the right preauricular point, and mark the crosspoint of the two measurements.</li>
			<li>To find the CP5 location, measure 30% of the distance between the preauricular points from the crosspoint down the left hemisphere and mark it. Measure 10% of the distance between the inion and the nasion from the marked point to the back of the head. This point is the CP5 location for the active electrode (Figure 3).</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Broca&#39;s area 
		NOTE: Closest to Broca&#39;s area is the F5 electrode site18&#160;according to the 10-20 system.
		<ol>
			<li>In the absence of an EEG cap, follow the standard 10-20 system procedures to find and mark the crosspoint between inion-nasion and preauricular points, as described above.</li>
			<li>To find the F5 location, measure 20% of the distance between the inion and the nasion from the crosspoint to the front of the head. Measure 30% of the distance between the preauricular points from the recently marked point down the left hemisphere. This point corresponds to the F5 location for the active electrode (Figure 3).</li>
		</ol>
		</li>
		<li>Homologous locations in the right hemisphere: for right-hemispheric homologues of Wernicke&#39;s and Broca&#39;s areas, use the same procedures as above, with the exception of measuring the distance from the midline down the right side of the scalp. Electrode locations are: CP6 for the RH Wernicke homologue and F6 for the Broca homologue.</li>
		<li>Use spongy electrodes measuring 5 cm x 5 cm as this size is a good compromise between focal stimulation (which causes more irritation and discomfort) and larger electrodes that lack focality. Soak the electrodes in physiological saline solution for 5 min before application.</li>
		<li>In order to minimize the effect of stimulation on other areas of the brain, place the reference electrode at the base of the neck on the left (right for homologues) side (see Figure 3 and Figure 4). Use spongy electrodes measuring 5 cm x 5 cm as well. 
		NOTE: Particular attention should be paid to preventing the spreading of the solution beyond the boundaries of the electrode application zone. Special care should be taken to keep the surrounding electrode area dry.</li>
		<li>For optimal cathodal stimulation, use 1.5 mA current for 15 min. At the onset, the current gradually rises from 0 to 1.5 mA over 30 s, and at the end of the stimulation it drops back to zero over 30 s.</li>
		<li>For anodal stimulation, use the same procedure as cathodal stimulation, except the polarity is reversed, and the anodal electrode is placed at the active site, while the cathode is used as the reference electrode located outside the scalp area.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Sham stimulation
	<ol>
		<li>Perform the sham stimulation procedure generally as described above except that the current is only applied briefly in the beginning and the end of the sham session. To this end, during the first and the last 30 s of the session, apply an electric pulse of a triangular shape with a maximum of 1.5 mA, as used in the present protocol.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Main behavioral task: contextual semantic learning
	<ol>
		<li>Present sets with contextual sentences for the novel words in a random order. Start each sentence with a word-by-word presentation.</li>
		<li>After this, display the entire sentence on the screen to ensure its full understanding. Have participants press the spacebar with the index finger of the left hand after reading the whole sentence. Duration of sentence presentation is 5000 ms. 
		NOTE: The sets of the sentences are separated from each other by appearance of three crosshairs (&#34;+++&#34;) for 2000 ms. Each new concept presentation starts with a single fixation cross (&#34;+&#34;) present for 500 ms before the sentence words are flashed. Each word is presented for 500 ms, and the empty screen in the background color between words within one sentence is 300 ms long.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Acquisition assessment procedure
	<ol>
		<li>To assess learning effects both immediately and following the overnight consolidation stage, break the stimulus set into two subsets, equally distributed across stimulus conditions and counterbalanced across the subject group, and run the assessment task immediately after the learning protocol on one subset, and after a 24 h delay on the other one. 
		NOTE: This strategy is based on the literature that highlights the importance of overnight memory consolidation for the acquisition of new words19,20.</li>
		<li>Use all developed tasks in the order described in section 3 above to assess different levels of word/concept acquisition. Choose the order of the tasks to minimize any carryover effects from one task to the following ones.</li>
		<li>For Tasks 1 and 4 use spreadsheets to be filled by subjects (by hand or using a text or spreadsheet processor); present the other tasks using temporally precise simulation software. 
		NOTE: Each stimulus in Tasks 2 and 3 is presented for 600 ms, with a fixation cross (&#34;+&#34;) present in the interstimulus interval (1400 ms); see Figure 3. For the other tasks the response time is not limited.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
6. Data analysis
<ol>
	<li>Perform data analysis using different tests comparing two sets of samples coming from continuous distributions (such as Wilcoxon signed rank test or Mann-Whitney U-test) or medians (two-sample t-test, if the distribution is normal).</li>
</ol>

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The authors have nothing to disclose.

The results highlight a few important points that need to be taken into account when conducting psycholinguistic research in general, and neurolinguistics tDCS studies in particular. Stimulation of language cortices (exemplified here by Wernicke&#39;s area) produces a complex pattern of behavioral outcomes. Unlike the TMS technique, where it is possible to fully disrupt speech processing (e.g., the so-called &#34;speech arrest&#34; protocol)21, this method enables a possibly more complex, graded a...

The neurobiological mechanisms of human language function are still poorly understood. As the bedrock of our communication ability, this unique human neurocognitive trait plays a particularly important role in our personal and socio-economic lives. Any deficits affecting speech and language are devastating for the sufferers and expensive for the society. At the same time, in the clinic, procedures for treatment of speech deficits (such as aphasia) remain suboptimal, not least due to poor understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms involved1. In research, the recent advent and rapid development of neuroimaging methods have led to multiple discoveries describing activation patterns; yet, causal evidence is often still lacking. Furthermore, language areas of the brain are located somewhat suboptimally for application of mainstream neurostimulation approaches which can provide causal evidence, most importantly the transcranial magnetic stimulation technique (TMS). Whereas offline TMS protocol, such as theta burst stimulation, can cause pain due to the close proximity of the muscles to the point of stimulation, &#34;online&#34; TMS protocols can introduce sound artifacts from stimulation, which is undesirable due to interference&#160;with linguistic stimulus presentation2. Even though TMS is widely used in language studies despite such inconveniences, a welcome alternative may be provided by other stimulation methods, most notably transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS). In recent years, tDCS has seen a remarkable growth in its use due to its accessibility, ease of use, relative safety and often rather striking outcomes3. Even though the exact mechanisms underpinning tDCS influence on neural activity are not understood completely, the mainstream view is that, at least at low intensity levels (typically 1-2 mA for 15-60 min), it does not cause any neural excitation or inhibition per se, but instead modulates the resting transmembrane potential in a graded way towards de- or hyperpolarization, shifting the excitation thresholds up or down and thereby making the neural system more or less susceptible to modulations by other events, stimuli, states or behaviors4,5. Whereas most of the applications reported to date have focused on the motor function6 and/or motor system deficits, it has been increasingly applied to higher-level cognitive functions and their respective disabilities. There has been a rise in its application to speech and language, mostly in research aimed at the recovery of post-stroke aphasia7,8,9, even though it has so far led to mixed results with respect to the therapeutic potential, stimulation sites and hemispheres, and optimal current polarity. As this research, and particularly the application of tDCS in cognitive neurobiology of normal language function, is still in its infancy, it is crucial to delineate procedures for stimulating at least the core language cortices (most importantly Wernicke&#39;s and Broca&#39;s areas) using tDCS, which is one of the main aims of the current report.
Here, we will consider application of tDCS to language areas in a word-learning experiment. In general, the case of word learning is taken here as one example of a neurolinguistic experiment, and the tDCS part of the procedure should not change substantially for other types of language experiments targeting the same areas. Yet, we use this opportunity to also highlight major methodological considerations in a word acquisition experiment per se, which is the second main aim of the current protocol description. Brain mechanisms underpinning word acquisition &#8211;&#160;a ubiquitous human capacity at the core of our linguistic communication skill&#160;&#8211;&#160;remain largely unknown10. Complicating the picture, existing literature differs widely in how experimental protocols promote word acquisition, in control over stimulation parameters, and in tasks used to assess learning outcomes (see, e.g., Davis et al.11). Below, we describe a protocol that uses highly controlled stimuli and presentation mode, while ensuring a naturalistic context-driven acquisition of novel vocabulary. Furthermore, we use a comprehensive battery of tasks to assess the outcomes behaviorally at different levels, both immediately after learning and following an overnight consolidation stage. This is combined with sham and cathodal tDCS of language areas (we make a particular example using Wernicke&#39;s area stimulation) which can provide causal evidence on underlying neural processes and mechanisms.

transcranial direct current stimulation (tdcs) of wernicke's and broca's areas in studies of language learning and word acquisition

Language is a highly important yet poorly understood function of the human brain. While studies of brain activation patterns during language comprehension are abundant, what is often critically missing is causal evidence of brain areas&#39; involvement in a particular linguistic function, not least due to the unique human nature of this ability and a shortage of neurophysiological tools to study causal relationships in the human brain noninvasively. Recent years have seen a rapid rise in the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the human brain, an easy, inexpensive and safe noninvasive technique that can modulate the state of the stimulated brain area (putatively by shifting excitation/inhibition thresholds), enabling a study of its particular contribution to specific functions. While mostly focusing on motor control, the use of tDCS is becoming more widespread in both basic and clinical research on higher cognitive functions, language included, but the procedures for its application remain variable. Here, we describe the use of tDCS in a psycholinguistic word-learning experiment. We present the techniques and procedures for application of cathodal and anodal stimulation of core language areas of Broca and Wernicke in the left hemisphere of the human brain, describe the procedures of creating balanced sets of psycholinguistic stimuli, a controlled yet naturalistic learning regime, and a comprehensive set of techniques to assess the learning outcomes and tDCS effects. As an example of tDCS application, we show that cathodal stimulation of Wernicke&#39;s area prior to a learning session can impact word learning efficiency. This impact is both present immediately after learning and, importantly, preserved over longer time after the physical effects of stimulation wear off, suggesting that tDCS can have long-term influence on linguistic storage and representations in the human brain.

While the data were analyzed for the specific set of tasks, it should be emphasized that the developed set of tests and the paradigm could be adapted to a variety of psycholinguistic experiments. The results were analyzed in terms of accuracy scores (number of correct answers) and the reaction time (RT) using non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank&#160;test and Mann-Whitney U test across groups (cathodal and sham stimulation conditions). Significant differences for tasks within each group ar...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition at JoVE.com

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition

Estimulação da corrente contínua transcraniana (tDCS) das áreas de Wernicke e broca em estudos de aprendizagem de línguas e aquisição de palavras

Here, we describe a protocol for using transcranial direct current stimulation for psycho- and neurolinguistic experiments aimed at studying, in a naturalistic yet fully controlled way, the role of cortical areas of the human brain in word learning, and a comprehensive set of behavioral procedures for assessing the outcomes.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition

Language is a highly important yet poorly understood function of the human brain. While studies of brain activation patterns during language comprehension ...

transcranial-direct-current-stimulation-tdcs-wernicke-s-broca-s-areas

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JoVE Journal

Behavior

16.4K visualizações.  St. Petersburg State University. Neste vídeo, descrevemos um protocolo simples de tempo e custo-benefício para o uso de estimulação transcraniana de corrente direta para experimentos psico e neurolinguísticos destinados a estudar de forma naturalista, mas totalmente controlada o papel das áreas corticais do cérebro humano na aprendizagem de palavras, e um conjunto abrangente de procedimentos comportamentais para avaliar os resultados. A linguagem é uma função altamente importante, mas mal compreendida, do cérebro ...

Vídeo: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS of Wernicke's and Broca's Areas in Studies of Language Learning and Word Acquisition

Simultaneous EEG Monitoring During Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique that delivers weak electric currents through the scalp. This constant electric current induces shifts in neuronal membrane excitability, resulting in secondary changes in cortical activity. Although tDCS has most of its neuromodulatory effects on the underlying cortex, tDCS effects can also be observed in distant neural networks. Therefore, concomitant EEG monitoring of the effects of tDCS can provide valuable information on the mechanisms of tDCS. In addition, EEG findings can be an important surrogate marker for the effects of tDCS and thus can be used to optimize its parameters. This combined EEG-tDCS system can also be used for preventive treatment of neurological conditions characterized by abnormal peaks of cortical excitability, such as seizures. Such a system would be the basis of a non-invasive closed-loop device. In this article, we present a novel device that is capable of utilizing tDCS and EEG simultaneously. For that, we describe in a step-by-step fashion the main procedures of the application of this device using schematic figures, tables and video demonstrations. Additionally, we provide a literature review on clinical uses of tDCS and its cortical effects measured by EEG techniques.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has shown initial therapeutic effects in several neurological conditions. The main mechanism underlying these therapeutic effects is the modulation of cortical excitability. Therefore, online monitoring of cortical excitability would help guide stimulation parameters and optimize its therapeutic effects. In the present article we review the use of a novel device that combines simultaneous tDCS and EEG monitoring in real time.

Monitorização EEG simultâneo Durante direto Estimulação Transcraniana atual

Transcranial  direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a technique that delivers weak electric  currents through the scalp. This constant electric current ...

Comportamento

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Simultaneous  Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that uses weak electrical currents administered to the scalp to manipulate cortical excitability and, consequently, behavior and brain function. In the last decade, numerous studies have addressed short-term and long-term effects of tDCS on different measures of behavioral performance during motor and cognitive tasks, both in healthy individuals and in a number of different patient populations. So far, however, little is known about the neural underpinnings of tDCS-action in humans with regard to large-scale brain networks. This issue can be addressed by combining tDCS with functional brain imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or electroencephalography (EEG).
In particular, fMRI is the most widely used brain imaging technique to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and motor functions. Application of tDCS during fMRI allows analysis of the neural mechanisms underlying behavioral tDCS effects with high spatial resolution across the entire brain. Recent studies using this technique identified stimulation induced changes in task-related functional brain activity at the stimulation site&#160;and also in more distant brain regions, which were associated with behavioral improvement. In addition, tDCS administered during resting-state fMRI allowed identification of widespread changes in whole brain functional connectivity.
Future studies using this combined protocol should yield new insights into the mechanisms of tDCS action in health and disease and new options for more targeted application of tDCS in research and clinical settings. The present manuscript describes this novel technique in a step-by-step fashion, with a focus on technical aspects of tDCS administered during fMRI.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique. It has successfully been used in basic research and clinical settings to modulate brain function in humans. This article describes the implementation of tDCS and simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to investigate the neural basis of tDCS effects.

Transcraniana direto Estimulação atual e simultânea Ressonância Magnética Funcional

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that uses weak electrical currents administered to the scalp ...

Modulating Cognition Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Cerebellum

Numerous studies have emerged recently that demonstrate the possibility of modulating, and in some cases enhancing, cognitive processes by exciting brain regions involved in working memory and attention using transcranial electrical brain stimulation. Some researchers now believe the cerebellum supports cognition, possibly via a remote neuromodulatory effect on the prefrontal cortex. This paper describes a procedure for investigating a role for the cerebellum in cognition using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and a selection of information-processing tasks of varying task difficulty, which have previously been shown to involve working memory, attention and cerebellar functioning. One task is called the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) and the other a novel variant of this task called the Paced Auditory Serial Subtraction Task (PASST). A verb generation task and its two controls (noun and verb reading) were also investigated. All five tasks were performed by three separate groups of participants, before and after the modulation of cortico-cerebellar connectivity using anodal, cathodal or sham tDCS over the right cerebellar cortex. The procedure demonstrates how performance (accuracy, verbal response latency and variability) could be selectively improved after cathodal stimulation, but only during tasks that the participants rated as difficult, and not easy. Performance was unchanged by anodal or sham stimulation. These findings demonstrate a role for the cerebellum in cognition, whereby activity in the left prefrontal cortex is likely dis-inhibited by cathodal tDCS over the right cerebellar cortex. Transcranial brain stimulation is growing in popularity in various labs and clinics. However, the after-effects of tDCS are inconsistent between individuals and not always polarity-specific, and may even be task- or load-specific, all of which requires further study. Future efforts might also be guided towards neuro-enhancement in cerebellar patients presenting with cognitive impairment once a better understanding of brain stimulation mechanisms has emerged.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the cerebellum exerts a remote effect on the prefrontal cortex, which can modulate cognition and performance. This was demonstrated using two information-processing tasks of varying complexity, whereby only cathodal tDCS improved performance when the task was difficult, but not easy.

Modulando Cognition Usando Transcraniana direto Estimulação atual do cerebelo

Numerous studies have emerged recently that demonstrate the possibility of modulating, and in some cases enhancing, cognitive processes by exciting brain ...

Concurrent Electroencephalography Recording During Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS)

Oscillatory brain activities are considered to reflect the basis of rhythmic changes in transmission efficacy across brain networks and are assumed to integrate cognitive neural processes. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) holds the promise to elucidate the causal link between specific frequencies of oscillatory brain activity and cognitive processes. Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) recording during tACS would offer an opportunity to directly explore immediate neurophysiological effects of tACS. However, it is not trivial to measure EEG signals during tACS, as tACS creates a huge artifact in EEG data. Here we explain how to set up concurrent tACS-EEG experiments. Two necessary considerations for successful EEG recording while applying tACS are highlighted. First, bridging of the tACS and EEG electrodes via leaking EEG gel immediately saturates the EEG amplifier. To avoid bridging via gel, the viscosity of the EEG gel is the most important parameter. The EEG gel must be viscous to avoid bridging, but at the same time sufficiently fluid to create contact between the tACS electrode and the scalp. Second, due to the large amplitude of the tACS artifact, it is important to consider using an EEG system with a high resolution analog-to-digital (A/D) converter. In particular, the magnitude of the tACS artifact can exceed 100 mV at the vicinity of a stimulation electrode when 1 mA tACS is applied. The resolution of the A/D converter is of importance to measure good quality EEG data from the vicinity of the stimulation site. By following these guidelines for the procedures and technical considerations, successful concurrent EEG recording during tACS will be realized.

Concurrent Electroencephalography Recording During Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation tACS

In this article we explain how to set up a concurrent transcranial alternating current stimulation and EEG experiment.

Concurrent Gravação Eletroencefalografia Durante Transcranial estimulação alternada Corrente (TAC)

Oscillatory brain activities are considered to reflect the basis of rhythmic changes in transmission efficacy across brain networks and are assumed to ...

Simultaneous Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a promising tool for noninvasive investigation of brain oscillations. TACS employs frequency-specific stimulation of the human brain through current applied to the scalp with surface electrodes. Most current knowledge of the technique is based on behavioral studies; thus, combining the method with brain imaging holds potential to better understand the mechanisms of tACS. Because of electrical and susceptibility artifacts, combining tACS with brain imaging can be challenging, however, one brain imaging technique that is well suited to be applied simultaneously with tACS is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In our lab, we have successfully combined tACS with simultaneous fMRI measurements to show that tACS effects are state, current, and frequency dependent, and that modulation of brain activity is not limited to the area directly below the electrodes. This article describes a safe and reliable setup for applying tACS simultaneously with visual task fMRI studies, which can lend to understanding oscillatory brain function as well as the effects of tACS on the brain.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a promising tool for noninvasive investigation of brain oscillations, though its effects are not completely understood. This article describes a safe and reliable setup for applying tACS simultaneously with functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can increase understanding oscillatory brain function and effects of tACS.

Estimulação de corrente alternada transcraniana simultânea e ressonância magnética funcional

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a promising tool for noninvasive investigation of brain oscillations. TACS employs ...

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

The present work is a description and an assessment of a methodology designed to quantify different aspects of the interaction between language processing and the perception of the visual world. The recording of eye-gaze patterns has provided good evidence for the contribution of both the visual context and linguistic/world knowledge to language comprehension. Initial research assessed object-context effects to test&#160;theories of modularity in language processing. In the introduction, we describe how subsequent investigations have taken the role of the wider visual context in language processing as a research topic in its own right, asking questions such as how our visual perception of events and of speakers contributes to&#160;comprehension informed by&#160;comprehenders&#39; experience. Among the examined aspects of the visual context are actions, events, a speaker&#39;s gaze, and emotional facial expressions, as well as spatial object configurations. Following an overview of the eye-tracking method and its different applications, we list the key steps of the methodology in the protocol, illustrating how to successfully use it to study visually-situated language comprehension. A final section presents three sets of representative results and illustrates the benefits and limitations of eye tracking for investigating the interplay between the perception of the visual world and language comprehension.

The present article reviews an eye-tracking methodology for studies on language comprehension. To obtain reliable data, key steps of the protocol must be followed. Among these are the correct set-up of the eye tracker (e.g., ensuring good quality of the eye and head images) and accurate calibration.

Olho de monitoramento durante a compreensão de linguagem visualmente situado: Flexibilidade e limitações no descobrindo contexto Visual Effects

The present work is a description and an assessment of a methodology designed to quantify different aspects of the interaction between language processing ...

Dissociation of the Confounding Influences of Expectancy and Integrative Difficulty Residing in Anomalous Sentences in Event-related Potential Studies

The confounding factors of unexpectedness and semantic integration difficulty naturally residing in anomalous sentences in language studies make it difficult to determine the underlying processing mechanism of ERP components. Unlike the traditional static approach of manipulating expectancy through corpus frequency or cloze probability, this protocol proposes a dynamic method to enhance participants&#39; expectancy for rarely-met anomalous sentences by multiple repetitions while maintaining their semantic integration difficulties. To address the time cost increase resulting from multiple repetitions, this protocol proposes to repeat only the strictly simplified core structure extracted from the anomalous sentence before presenting the semantically enriched, much more informative complete anomalous sentence containing the anomalous core structure to reinitiate the semantic integration processing. The complete anomalous sentence elicited a P600 effect. It suggests that the participants did not give up processing the anomalous information after repetitions and the same semantic integration difficulty was successfully reinitiated. Importantly, the representative experimental results reveal that the greatly attenuated N400 effect caused by multiple repetitions was not recovered by the follow-up reinitiated semantic integration difficulty. It suggests that the attenuated N400 effect should be mainly attributed to the enhancement of expectancy for anomalous information by multiple repetitions. The experimental results show that this method can effectively enhance participants&#39; expectancy for anomalous sentences while retaining the semantic integration difficulty.

We present a protocol to dissociate the intertwining factors of integrative difficulty and unexpectedness in semantically anomalous sentences by applying multiple repetitions to enhance participant&#39;s expectancy for anomalous sentences. The dissociation helps to investigate the major contributor of elicited event-related potentials (ERP) effects such as N400 in language studies.

Dissociação das influências confounding da expectativa e da dificuldade Integrativa residentes em sentenças anômalas em estudos potenciais relacionados a eventos

The confounding factors of unexpectedness and semantic integration difficulty naturally residing in anomalous sentences in language studies make it ...

Lexical Decision Task for Studying Written Word Recognition in Adults with and without Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment

Older adults are slower at recognizing visual objects than younger adults. The same is true for recognizing that a letter string is a real word. People with Alzheimer&#39;s disease (AD) or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) demonstrate even longer responses in written word recognition than elderly controls. Despite the general tendency towards slower recognition in aging and neurocognitive disorders, certain characteristics of words influence word recognition speed regardless of age or neuropathology (e.g., a word&#8217;s frequency of use). We present here a protocol for examining the influence of lexical characteristics on word recognition response times in a simple lexical decision experiment administered to younger and older adults and people with MCI or AD. In this experiment, participants are asked to decide as quickly and accurately as possible whether a given letter string is an actual word or not. We also describe mixed-effects models and principal components analysis that can be used to detect the influence of different types of lexical variables or individual characteristics of participants on word recognition speed.

This article describes how to implement a simple lexical decision experiment to assess written word recognition in neurologically healthy participants and in individuals with dementia and cognitive decline. We also provide a detailed description of reaction time analysis using principal components analysis (PCA) and mixed-effects modeling.

Tarefa de decisão lexical para o estudo do reconhecimento de palavras escritas em adultos com e sem demência ou comprometimento cognitivo leve

Older adults are slower at recognizing visual objects than younger adults. The same is true for recognizing that a letter string is a real word. People ...

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Online Gamers

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that applies a weak electric current to the scalp to modulate neuronal membrane potentials. Compared to other brain stimulation methods, tDCS is relatively safe, simple, and inexpensive to administer.
Since excessive online gaming can negatively affect mental health and daily functioning, developing treatment options for gamers is necessary. Although tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has demonstrated promising results for various addictions, it has not been tested in gamers. This paper describes a protocol and a feasibility study for applying repeated tDCS over the DLPFC and neuroimaging to examine the underlying neural correlates in gamers.
At baseline, individuals who play online games report average weekly hours spent on games, complete questionnaires on addiction symptoms and self-control, and undergo brain 18F-&#64258;uoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). The tDCS protocol consists of 12 sessions over the DLPFC for 4 weeks (anode F3/cathode F4, 2 mA for 30 min per session). Then, a follow-up is conducted using the same protocol as the baseline. Individuals who do not play online games receive only baseline FDG-PET scans without tDCS. Changes of clinical characteristics and asymmetry of regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRglu) in the DLPFC are examined in gamers. In addition, asymmetry of rCMRglu is compared between gamers and non-gamers at baseline.
In our experiment, 15 gamers received tDCS sessions and completed baseline and follow-up scans. Ten non-gamers underwent FDG-PET scans at the baseline. The tDCS reduced addiction symptoms, time spent on games, and increased self-control. Moreover, abnormal asymmetry of rCMRglu in the DLPFC at baseline was alleviated after tDCS.
The current protocol may be useful for assessing treatment efficacy of tDCS and its underlying brain changes in gamers. Further randomized sham-controlled studies are warranted. Moreover, the protocol can be applied to other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

We present a protocol and a feasibility study for applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and neuroimaging assessment in online gamers.

Estimulação transcraniana de corrente direta para jogadores on-line

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique that applies a weak electric current to the scalp to modulate ...

An Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effects of Ageing on Sentence Processing

Previous studies have found that older adults have greater difficulties in processing syntactically complex sentences than younger adults. However, the exact regions where the difficulties arise have not been fully identified. In this study, a maze task was implemented to investigate how older adults and younger adults differentially processed two types of sentences with different levels of syntactic complexity, namely subject relative clauses and object relative clauses. Participants were asked to choose between two alternatives at each segment of the sentences. The task required participants to engage in a strictly incremental mode of processing. The reading times for each segment were recorded, allowing the quantification of the difficulty of sentence reading. The task allowed us to identify the exact locations of the processing difficulty and thus facilitate a more accurate assessment of the age-related decline in sentence processing. The results indicate that the effect of ageing was found mainly at the head nouns, but not at other regions of the sentences, a finding which suggests that the maze task is an effective method to identify the exact location of the ageing effect on sentence processing. The implications of this experimental paradigm for investigating the effect of ageing on sentence processing are discussed.

Here, we present a protocol to examine the age-related decline in sentence processing using a maze task that allowed us to localize the processing difficulty at each word of the sentences during reading.

Um paradigma experimental para medir os efeitos do envelhecimento no processamento de sentenças

Previous studies have found that older adults have greater difficulties in processing syntactically complex sentences than younger adults. However, the ...