Project Details
Projekt
Enhancing learning-based cognitive control by focalized transcranial direct current stimulation
Subject Area
Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 467143400
Adaptive cognitive control – as the human capacity to pursue goal-directed behavior in dynamically changing environments – forms the basis for cognitive and behavioral flexibility in everyday life. Recent research has highlighted associative learning mechanisms and the role of episodic memory as basic mechanisms underlying adaptive cognitive control. Because adaptive cognitive control shows a decline in normal aging and its malfunction is closely related to neurological and psychiatric conditions, this project will specifically investigate the neural mechanisms and predictors underlying enhancement of this process by individualized, focal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). In the long-run, outcomes of this project will contribute to improving treatment of patients with deficits in self-control and disadvantageous decision making (e.g., addiction, eating disorders).Within the broader context of the Research Unit (RU), the present study is one of eight projects investigating tDCS effects on learning and memory formation across functional domains (Projects 1-8) and the healthy human lifespan. The highly systematic and coordinated approach pursued by these empirical projects will allow for the first time analyzing the underlying neural mechanisms and predictors of behavioral stimulation response not only within each project, but also across the different tasks and functional domains (in Project 9).The current project will contribute unique information on how tDCS modulates learning-based adaptive cognitive control, thereby complementing the investigation of tDCS-induced enhancement of sequential decision making in Project 8 (PI Li). Collectively, the results of the empirical projects of the RU will increase our current understanding of tDCS-induced neural network effects, their regional specificity, the mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability of stimulation effects, and potential changes due to chronological age. From a methodological point of view, data acquired in these projects will contribute to optimizing and validating biophysical models of current flow (in P9+10), thereby advancing future experimental and translational applications of tDCS in health and disease.
DFG Programme
Research Units
