title: Differential influences of unilateral tDCS over the intraparietal cortex on numerical cognition.
abstract: Recent neuro-imaging research identified the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS) to be a key area associated with number processing. However, causal structure-function relationships are hard to evaluate from neuro-imaging techniques such as fMRI. Nevertheless, brain stimulation methods like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) allow for investigating the functional relevance of the IPS for number processing. Following up on a study using bilateral bi-cephalic tDCS over the IPS, the current study aimed at evaluating the differential lateralized functional contributions of the left and right IPS to number processing using unilateral bi-cephalic tDCS over either the left or right IPS. Results indicated a right lateralization for the processing of the place-value structure of the Arabic number system. Importantly, the processing of number magnitude information was not affected by unilateral IPS corroborating the assumption that number magnitude is processed in the bilateral IPS. Taken together, these data suggest that even though number magnitude is represented bilaterally, the left and right IPS seem to contribute differentially to numerical cognition with respect to the processing of specific other aspects of numerical information.
authors: LEAD Graduate School, Eberhardt Karls University of Tuebingen Tuebingen, Germany.
authors: Christina
authors: C
authors: Artemenko
authors: LEAD Graduate School, Eberhardt Karls University of Tuebingen Tuebingen, Germany ; Knowledge Media Research Center Tuebingen, Germany.
authors: Korbinian
authors: K
authors: Moeller
authors: Knowledge Media Research Center Tuebingen, Germany.
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Huber
authors: Knowledge Media Research Center Tuebingen, Germany.
authors: Elise
authors: E
authors: Klein
keywords: intraparietal sulcus; number magnitude processing; numerical cognition; place-value processing; transcranial direct current stimulation; unilateral tDCS