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| The Influence of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Mental Rotation |
| Dong Guoya1*, Shi Jing1, Yang Hui1, Liu Ye1, Wu Zuhe2, Chen Xiaogang3 |
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China
2Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
3Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin 300192, China |
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Abstract Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) is a new non-invasive technology that applies weak electrical stimulation on the scalp to regulate neural activity. It has been confirmed that tACS can regulate spontaneous brain rhythm and influence cognitive process. Mental rotation is an important benchmark to measure spatial cognitive ability by imaging rotate object or itself. This study used mental rotation experimental paradigm to explore the effects of tACS on the mental rotation cognitive, the main evaluation indexes were behavioral performance and electrophysiological parameters like event related potential (ERP) and event related desynchronization (ERD). Behavioral results showed that the alpha tACS significantly reduced the reaction time(P<0.05), and with the image rotation angle increasing, the reaction time increased first and then decreased. Compared the mental rotation related negative wave between control group and stimulation group, we found that the RRN amplitude of stimulation group was lower than that of control group (stim vs sham, P<0.05), and it decreased first and then increased with the rotation angel increasing. The time-frequency analysis showed that the event related desynchronization in alpha and beta bands of stimulation group was weaker than that of control group (stim vs sham, P<0.05), and it appeared earlier than that of control group, indicating that tACS reduced the level of brain activation based on the earlier results that ERD is related to brain activation level. These results implied that tACS could improve the mental rotation ability and was potential in becoming a new way to improve the spatial cognitive ability.
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Received: 18 September 2016
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