Poster No:
2008
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Charline Peylo1, Paul Sauseng1
Institutions:
1University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
Top-down attention for the goal-directed (de-)prioritization of information is fundamental for successful everyday-life behavior and poses tremendous problems when negatively impacted by disease (Burgoyne & Engle, 2020). Attention-targeting enhancement and rehabilitation attempts using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) are therefore of major importance (Coffman et al., 2014). tDCS-driven excitation of the left frontal eye field (FEF; a key region within fronto-parietal attention networks; Corbetta & Shulman, 2002) has recently been suggested to improve attention-guided visual search with stronger effects for lower baseline performers (Gan et al., 2022).
Methods:
Here, we present two preregistered tDCS experiments with open data and analyses to test 1) whether the previously observed visual search improvement could be boosted through stimulation over the allegedly more dominant right FEF and 2) whether tDCS-related visual search improvements might depend on search field size. To this end, in experiments one and two, N=29 and N=31 healthy participants performed a visual search task, in which they searched for an upside-down 'T' amongst upright 'T's and 'L's within small or large search fields, before and during the application of anodal (excitatory) or sham (control) tDCS over the right or left FEF, respectively.
Results:
In both experiments (i.e., independent of stimulation site and search field size) we found neither tDCS-specific (anodal > sham) visual search improvements, nor stimulation-specific baseline dependencies (larger improvements for lower baseline performers were observed in both tDCS conditions, suggesting rather stimulation-unspecific effects).
Conclusions:
Together, our results provide evidence against reliable top-down attention-guided visual search improvements through FEF tDCS in healthy, young participants.
Brain Stimulation:
Non-invasive Electrical/tDCS/tACS/tRNS 2
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Attention: Visual 1
Perception: Visual
Keywords:
Perception
Other - top-down attention; visual-spatial attention; visual search; transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS); frontal eye field
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Task-activation
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Healthy subjects
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Other, Please specify
-
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)
Provide references using APA citation style.
Burgoyne, A. P., & Engle, R. W. (2020). Attention control: A cornerstone of higher-order cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(6), 624-630. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420969371
Coffman, B. A., Clark, V. P., & Parasuraman, R. (2014). Battery powered thought: Enhancement of attention, learning, and memory in healthy adults using transcranial direct current stimulation. Neuroimage, 85(3), 895–908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.07.083
Corbetta, M., & Shulman, G. L. (2002). Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3(3), 201-215. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn755
Gan, T., Huang, Y., Hao, X., Hu, L., Zheng, Y., & Yang, Z. (2022). Anodal tDCS over the left frontal eye field improves sustained visual search performance. Perception, 51(4), 263-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/03010066221086446
No