title: Non-invasive brain stimulation of the aging brain: State of the art and future perspectives.
abstract: Favored by increased life expectancy and reduced birth rate, worldwide demography is rapidly shifting to older ages. The golden age of aging is not only an achievement but also a big challenge because of the load of the elderly on social and medical health care systems. Moreover, the impact of age-related decline of attention, memory, reasoning and executive functions on self-sufficiency emphasizes the need of interventions to maintain cognitive abilities at a useful degree in old age. Recently, neuroscientific research explored the chance to apply Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation (NiBS) techniques (as transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation) to healthy aging population to preserve or enhance physiologically-declining cognitive functions. The present review will update and address the current state of the art on NiBS in healthy aging. Feasibility of NiBS techniques will be discussed in light of recent neuroimaging (either structural or functional) and neurophysiological models proposed to explain neural substrates of the physiologically aging brain. Further, the chance to design multidisciplinary interventions to maximize the efficacy of NiBS techniques will be introduced as a necessary future direction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab. (SiBIN Lab), University of Siena, Italy. Electronic address: elisatatti@msn.com.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tatti
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab. (SiBIN Lab), University of Siena, Italy; Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Human Physiology Section, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab. (SiBIN Lab), University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Iglis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Innocenti
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab. (SiBIN Lab), University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology Section, Brain Investigation & Neuromodulation Lab. (SiBIN Lab), University of Siena, Italy; Siena Robotic and Systems Lab (SirsLab), Department of Information Engineering and Mathematics, University of Siena, Italy; Berenson-Allen Center for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: esantarn@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Santarnecchi
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends
keywords: Cognition; Healthy aging; Non-invasive brain stimulation; rTMS; tDCS