title: At-home tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves visual short-term memory in mild vascular dementia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have shown that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) led to an improvement of various cognitive functions in patients with Alzheimer dementia, early affected by short-term memory deficits. Since this approach has not been evaluated in the context of vascular dementia, which rather affects the velocity of cognitive responses, we aimed at improving these functions by applying repetitive sessions of anodal tDCS.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four 20-minute sessions of 2mA anodal or sham at-home tDCS were applied to the left DLPFC in a single-blinded randomised study of 21 patients with mild vascular dementia, with parallel-group design. The effect of tDCS on cognitive testing was assessed up to two weeks beyond the stimulation time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A similar clinically meaningful improvement of various cognitive and behavioral dysfunction characteristics could be observed following either active or sham tDCS, whereas visual recall, and reaction times in the n-back task as well as in the go/no-go test improved only in the active tDCS group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients with mild vascular dementia, anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC is able to produce additional effects to cognitive training on visual short-term memory, verbal working memory, and executive control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: André
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroradiology, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Friederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kayser
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Menzler
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Center for Neurorehabilitation, Valens, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kesselring
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Patrick H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Khader
authors.affiliation: Service de Physiologie - Explorations Fonctionnelles, Hôpital Henri-Mondor, AP-HP, EA4391, Université Paris-Est, Créteil, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Pascal
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Lefaucheur
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Philipps University Marburg, Baldingerstrasse, 35033 Marburg, Germany; Department of Neurology, Center for Neurorehabilitation, Valens, Switzerland. Electronic address: mylius@med.uni-marburg.de.
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mylius
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation / Q000379:methods*