Modulation of Visual Working Memory Performance via Different Theta Frequency Stimulations

Brain Sciences

Xue Guo¹  Qiang Liu¹  Liangyou Zhang¹  Ziyuan Li² 

[1] Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China;Research Center of Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China;

关键词: visual working memory capacity;    quality;    quantity;    tACS;   

DOI  :  10.3390/brainsci11101358

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Previous studies have found that transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can significantly enhance individuals’ working memory performance. However, it is still unclear whether the memory performance enhancement was attributed to the quantity or the quality of working memory. The current study applies tACS over the right parietal cortex at slower (4 Hz) and faster (7 Hz) frequencies to participants with high and low working memory capacities in a color recall memory task. This enabled us to explore the tACS effects on the quantity and quality of the working memory for individuals with different memory capacities. The results revealed that slower frequency (4 Hz) tACS enhanced the quality of memory representations, and faster frequency (7 Hz) tACS principally impaired the quantity of working memory. The underlying mechanism of this effect might be that tACS at different frequencies modulate the memory resources, which then selectively affect the quantity and quality of memory representations. Importantly, individual traits, as well as memory strategies, may be crucial factors to consider when testing the effect of tACS on working memory performance.

【 授权许可】

Unknown