Journal article
Catecholaminergic modulation of indices of cognitive flexibility: a pharmaco-tDCS study
- Abstract:
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Background Dopaminergic activity within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) has been implicated in the control of cognitive flexibility. Much of the evidence for a causative relationship between cognitive flexibility and dopamine has come from animal studies, whilst human data have largely been correlational.
Objective/Hypothesis:The current study examines whether changes in dopamine levels through tyrosine administration and suppression of dlPFC activity via cathodal tDCS could be causally related to cognitive flexibility as measured by task switching and reversal learning.
Methods Using a crossover, double-blind, sham controlled, counterbalanced, randomized trial, we tested the effects of combining cathodal tDCS with tyrosine, a catecholaminergic precursor, with appropriate drug and tDCS placebo controls, on two measures of cognitive flexibility: probabilistic reversal learning, and task switching.
Results While none of the manipulations had an effect on task switching, there was a significant main effect of cathodal tDCS and tyrosine on reversal learning. Reversal learning performance was significantly worsened by cathodal tDCS compared with sham tDCS, whilst tyrosine significantly improved performance compared with placebo. However, there was no significant tDCS × drugs interaction. Interestingly, and as predicted by our model, the combined administration of tyrosine with cathodal tDCS resulted in performance that was equivalent to the control condition (i.e. tDCS sham + placebo).
Conclusions Our results suggest a causative role for dopamine signalling and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in regulating indices of cognitive flexibility in humans.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 393.7KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.001
Authors
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Journal:
- Brain Stimulation More from this journal
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 290-295
- Publication date:
- 2018-12-07
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-12-05
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1876-4754
- ISSN:
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1935-861X
- Pmid:
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30552060
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:954596
- UUID:
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uuid:8a040f75-dba5-4790-b937-ee8714978682
- Local pid:
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pubs:954596
- Source identifiers:
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954596
- Deposit date:
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2019-02-13
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Elsevier Inc
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Notes:
- © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from Elsevier at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.001
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