Biomaterial Database

Enhancing spatial reasoning by anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right posterior parietal cortex. 2020

Julia Wertheim, and Lorenza S Colzato, and Michael A Nitsche, and Marco Ragni

Cognitive Computation Lab, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 79, 79110, Freiburg, Germany. wertheim@cs.uni-freiburg.de.

Spatial reasoning is essential for an agent's navigation and the cognitive processing of abstract arrangements. Meta-analyses of neuroimaging data reveal that both the right posterior parietal cortex and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PPC and DLPFC, respectively) show increased activation during spatial relational reasoning. To investigate whether participants' reasoning performance can be modified and potentially enhanced, anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied over either region. 51 healthy adult participants solved spatial reasoning problems after the application of either anodal tDCS over the right PPC, the left DLPFC or a sham stimulation. We expect anodal stimulation to enhance cortical excitability which would be reflected by enhanced reasoning performance in participants receiving stimulation. The results demonstrate that anodal stimulation applied over the right PPC enhances participants' performance in indeterminate reasoning problems, compared to sham and anodal stimulation over the left DLPFC. This finding is highly relevant for clarifying the cognitive mechanisms of relational reasoning and for clinical applications, e.g., enhancing or restoring higher cognitive functions for spatial representation and reasoning.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D010296	Parietal Lobe	Upper central part of the cerebral hemisphere. It is located posterior to central sulcus, anterior to the OCCIPITAL LOBE, and superior to the TEMPORAL LOBES.	Brodmann Area 39,Brodmann Area 40,Brodmann Area 5,Brodmann Area 7,Brodmann's Area 39,Brodmann's Area 40,Brodmann's Area 5,Brodmann's Area 7,Inferior Parietal Cortex,Secondary Sensorimotor Cortex,Superior Parietal Lobule,Angular Gyrus,Gyrus Angularis,Gyrus Supramarginalis,Intraparietal Sulcus,Marginal Sulcus,Parietal Cortex,Parietal Lobule,Parietal Region,Posterior Paracentral Lobule,Posterior Parietal Cortex,Praecuneus,Precuneus,Precuneus Cortex,Prelunate Gyrus,Supramarginal Gyrus,Area 39, Brodmann,Area 39, Brodmann's,Area 40, Brodmann,Area 40, Brodmann's,Area 5, Brodmann,Area 5, Brodmann's,Area 7, Brodmann,Area 7, Brodmann's,Brodmanns Area 39,Brodmanns Area 40,Brodmanns Area 5,Brodmanns Area 7,Cortex, Inferior Parietal,Cortex, Parietal,Cortex, Posterior Parietal,Cortex, Precuneus,Cortex, Secondary Sensorimotor,Cortices, Inferior Parietal,Gyrus, Angular,Gyrus, Prelunate,Gyrus, Supramarginal,Inferior Parietal Cortices,Lobe, Parietal,Lobule, Parietal,Lobule, Posterior Paracentral,Lobule, Superior Parietal,Paracentral Lobule, Posterior,Paracentral Lobules, Posterior,Parietal Cortex, Inferior,Parietal Cortex, Posterior,Parietal Cortices,Parietal Cortices, Inferior,Parietal Cortices, Posterior,Parietal Lobes,Parietal Lobule, Superior,Parietal Lobules,Parietal Lobules, Superior,Parietal Regions,Posterior Paracentral Lobules,Posterior Parietal Cortices,Precuneus Cortices,Region, Parietal,Secondary Sensorimotor Cortices,Sensorimotor Cortex, Secondary,Superior Parietal Lobules
D010919	Placebos	Any dummy medication or treatment. Although placebos originally were medicinal preparations having no specific pharmacological activity against a targeted condition, the concept has been extended to include treatments or procedures, especially those administered to control groups in clinical trials in order to provide baseline measurements for the experimental protocol.	Sham Treatment
D011340	Problem Solving	A learning situation involving more than one alternative from which a selection is made in order to attain a specific goal.
D004566	Electrodes	Electric conductors through which electric currents enter or leave a medium, whether it be an electrolytic solution, solid, molten mass, gas, or vacuum.	Anode,Anode Materials,Cathode,Cathode Materials,Anode Material,Anodes,Cathode Material,Cathodes,Electrode,Material, Anode,Material, Cathode
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293	Adolescent	A person 13 to 18 years of age.	Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000328	Adult	A person having attained full growth or maturity. Adults are of 19 through 44 years of age. For a person between 19 and 24 years of age, YOUNG ADULT is available.	Adults
D013028	Space Perception	The awareness of the spatial properties of objects; includes physical space.	Perception, Space,Perceptions, Space,Space Perceptions