PLoS ONE (Jan 2015)

Continuous theta burst stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex decreases medium load working memory performance in healthy humans.

  • Nathalie Schicktanz,
  • Matthias Fastenrath,
  • Annette Milnik,
  • Klara Spalek,
  • Bianca Auschra,
  • Thomas Nyffeler,
  • Andreas Papassotiropoulos,
  • Dominique J-F de Quervain,
  • Kyrill Schwegler

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120640
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 3
p. e0120640

Abstract

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The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a key role in working memory. Evidence indicates that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the DLPFC can interfere with working memory performance. Here we investigated for how long continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) over the DLPFC decreases working memory performance and whether the effect of cTBS on performance depends on working memory load. Forty healthy young subjects received either cTBS over the left DLPFC or sham stimulation before performing a 2-, and 3-back working memory letter task. An additional 0-back condition served as a non-memory-related control, measuring general attention. cTBS over the left DLPFC significantly impaired 2-back working memory performance for about 15 min, whereas 3-back and 0-back performances were not significantly affected. Our results indicate that the effect of left DLPFC cTBS on working memory performance lasts for roughly 15 min and depends on working memory load.