Modulation of the cognitive event-related potential P3 by transcranial direct current stimulation: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Augusto J. Mendes, Kevin Pacheco-Barrios, Alberto Lema, Óscar F. Gonçalves, Felipe Fregni, Jorge Leite, Sandra Carvalho*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been widely used to modulate cognition and behavior. However, only a few studies have been probing the brain mechanism underlying the effects of tDCS on cognitive processing, especially throughout electrophysiological markers, such as the P3. This meta-analysis assessed the effects of tDCS in P3 amplitude and latency during an oddball, n-back, and Go/No-Go tasks, as well as during emotional processing. A total of 36 studies were identified, but only 23 were included in the quantitative analysis. The results show that the parietal P3 amplitude increased during oddball and n-back tasks, mostly after anodal stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (p = 0.018, SMD = 0.4) and right inferior frontal gyrus (p < 0.001, SMD = 0.669) respectively. These findings suggest the potential usefulness of the parietal P3 ERP as a marker of tDCS-induced effects during task performance. Nonetheless, this study had a low number of studies and the presence of considerable risk of bias, highlighting issues to be addressed in the future.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)894-907
Number of pages14
JournalNeuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Volume132
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Attention
  • Cognition
  • Event-related potential P3 P300
  • Inhibitory control
  • Working memory
  • tDCS

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