Abstract
Previous evidence suggests that high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (HF-rTMS) improves inhibitory control in healthy young adults. Little is known as to whether HF-rTMS would show similar facilitation effects in older adults undergoing normal aging. We recruited 16 healthy elderly adults and randomly assigned them to either a 10. Hz HF-rTMS or sham stimulation group. Five daily stimulation sessions over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were given to each participant. Changes in inhibitory control were assessed using a modified Stroop task. Participants performed the Stroop task twice, 1 day before and after the five daily stimulations. We found that participants in the active HF-rTMS stimulation group showed improved performance in reaction time during incongruent trials (i.e. those with distracting information) after HF-rTMS treatment compared with pre-treatment trials. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first studies demonstrating that daily HF-rTMS can improve attentional control in normally aging individuals.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 256-260 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Neuroscience Research |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 Dec |
Keywords
- Aging
- Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
- Inhibitory
- RTMS
- Stroop
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)