Humans are limited in their ability to perform multiple cognitive-motor tasks in parallel. In eight participants, we examined whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to dorsal premotor cortex (PMD) could attenuate a delay of reaction time (RT) while the participants responded to two visual stimuli presented in temporally close succession. We provided anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS while the participants performed a task requiring two choice responses or a control task requiring two fixed responses. When the interval between the two stimuli was shorter, the RTs were delayed in both tasks, but anodal tDCS shortened them only in the former task, probably by promoting the response selection function of PMD. Non-invasive neuro-modulation to the brain can boost human ability to multi-task.
KeywordsTranscranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)Psychological Refractory Period (PRP)Dorsal Premotor Cortex (PMD)Response Selection
R. de Jong, “Multiple Bottlenecks in Overlapping Task Performance,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 19, No. 5, 1993, pp. 965-980. doi:10.1037/0096-1523.19.5.965
H. Pashler, “Dual-Task Interference in Simple Tasks: Data and Theory,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 116, No. 2, 1994, pp. 220-244. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.116.2.220
M. D. Byrne and J. R. Anderson, “Serial Modules in Parallel: The Psychological Refractory Period and Perfect Time-Sharing,” Psychological Review, Vol. 108, No. 4, 2001, pp. 847-869. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.108.4.847
R. Marois and J. Ivanoff, “Capacity Limits of Information Processing in the Brain,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 9, No. 6, 2005, pp. 296-305. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.04.010
C. Spence, “Cognitive Neuroscience: Searching for the Bottleneck in the Brain,” Current Biology, Vol. 18, No. 20, 2008, pp. 965-968. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2008.08.039
M. C. Lien and R. W. Proctor, “Stimulus-Response Compatibility and Psychological Refractory Period Effects: Implications for Response Selection,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2002, pp. 212-238. doi:10.3758/BF03196277
Y. Jiang, R. Saxe and N. Kanwisher, “Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Provides New Constraints on Theories of the Psychological Refractory Period,” Psychological Science, Vol. 15, No. 6, 2004, pp. 390-396. doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00690.x
T. C. Rickard and D. Bajic, “Memory Retrieval Given Two Independent Cues: Cue Selection or Parallel Access?” Cognitive Psychology, Vol. 48, No. 3, 2004, pp. 243-294. doi:10.1016/j.cogpsych.2003.07.002
R. Marois, J. M. Larson, M. M. Chun and D. Shima, “Response-Specific Sources of Dual-Task Interference in Human Pre-Motor Cortex,” Psychological Research, Vol. 70, No. 6, 2006, pp. 436-447. doi:10.1007/s00426-005-0022-6
S. P. Wise and E. A. Murray, “Arbitrary Associations between Antecedents and Actions,” Trends in Neurosciences, Vol. 23, No. 6, 2000, pp. 271-276. doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(00)01570-8
E. Koechlin, C. Ody and F. Kouneiher, “The Architecture of Cognitive Control in the Human Prefrontal Cortex,” Science, Vol. 302, No. 5648, 2003, pp. 1181-1185. doi:10.1126/science.1088545
E. Koechlin and C. Summerfield, “An Information Theoretical Approach to Prefrontal Executive Function,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 6, 2007, pp. 229-235. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2007.04.005
J. O’Shea, C. Sebastian, E. D. Boorman, H. Johansen-Berg and M. F. Rushworth, “Functional Specificity of Human Premotor-Motor Cortical Interactions during Action Selection,” European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 26, No. 7, 2007 pp. 2085-2095. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2007.05795.x
M. A. Nitsche and W. Paulus, “Excitability Changes Induced in the Human Motor Cortex by Weak Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation,” The Journal of Physiology, Vol. 527, No. 3, 2000, pp. 633-639. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7793.2000.t01-1-00633.x
A. Antal, T. Z. Kincses, M. A. Nitsche, O. Bartfai and W. Paulus, “Excitability Changes Induced in the Human Primary Visual Cortex by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Direct Electrophysiological Evidence,” Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Vol. 45, No. 2, 2004, pp. 702-707. doi:10.1167/iovs.03-0688
F. C. Hummel and L. G. Cohen, “Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation: A New Strategy to Improve Neurorehabilitation after Stroke?” Lancet Neurology, Vol. 5, No. 8, 2006, pp. 708-712. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(06)70525-7
K. Boros, C. Poreisz, A. Munchau, W. Paulus and M. A. Nitsche, “Premotor Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Affects Primary Motor Excitability in Humans,” European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 27, No. 5, 2008, pp. 1292-1300. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2008.06090.x
N. Bolognini, A. Rossetti, C. Casati, F. Mancini and G. Vallar, “Neuromodulation of Multisensory Perception: A tDCS Study of the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion,” Neuropsychologia, Vol. 49, No. 2, 2011, pp. 231-237. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.11.015
R. C. Oldfield, “The Assessment and Analysis of Handedness: The Edinburgh Inventory,” Neuropsychologia, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1971, pp. 97-113. doi:10.1016/0028-3932(71)90067-4
S. Bestmann, O. Swayne, F. Blankenburg, C. C. Ruff, P. Haggard, et al., “Dorsal Premotor Cortex Exerts State-Dependent Causal Influences on Activity in Contralateral Primary Motor and Dorsal Premotor Cortex,” Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 18, No. 6, 2008, pp. 1281-1291. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhm159
J. Kroeger, T. B?umer, M. Jonas, J. C. Rothwell, H. R. Siebner, et al., “Charting the Excitability of Premotor to Motor Connections while Withholding or Initiating a Selected Movement,” European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 32, No. 10, 2010, pp. 1771-1779. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07442.x
B. W. Vines, N. M. Schnider and G. Schlaug, “Testing for Causality with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Pitch Memory and the Left Supramarginal Gyrus,” Neuroreport, Vol. 17, No. 10, 2006, pp. 1047-1050. doi:10.1097/01.wnr.0000223396.05070.a2
F. Hummel, P. Celnik, P. Giraux, A. Floel, W. H. Wu, et al., “Effects of Non-Invasive Cortical Stimulation on Skilled Motor Function in Chronic Stroke,” Brain, Vol. 128, No. 3, 2005, pp. 490-499. doi:10.1093/brain/awh369
E. K. Kang and N. J. Paik, “Effect of a tDCS Electrode Montage on Implicit Motor Sequence Learning in Healthy Subjects,” Experimental & Translational Stroke Medicine.
J. Reis, H. M. Schambra, L. G. Cohen, E. R. Buch, B. Fritsch, et al., “Noninvasive Cortical Stimulation Enhances Motor Skill Acquisition over Multiple Days through an Effect on Consolidation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 106, No. 5, 2009, pp. 1590-1595. doi:10.1073/pnas.0805413106
G. Corallo, J. Sackur, S. Dehaene and M. Sigman, “Limits on Introspection: Distorted Subjective Time during the Dual-Task Bottleneck,” Psychological Science, Vol. 19, No. 11, 2008, pp. 1110-1117. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02211.x
M. Sigman and S. Dehaene, “Brain Mechanisms of Serial and Parallel Processing during Dual-Task Performance,” Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 28, No. 30, 2008, pp. 7585-7598. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0948-08.2008
A. Antal, M. A. Nitsche, T. Z. Kincses, W. Kruse, K. P. Hoffmann, et al., “Facilitation of Visuo-Motor Learning by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Motor and Extrastriate Visual Areas in Humans,” European Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 19, No. 10, 2004, pp. 2888-2892. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2004.03367.x
T. Z. Kincses, A. Antal, M. A. Nitsche, O. Bartfai, W. Paulus, “Facilitation of Probabilistic Classification Learning by Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Prefrontal Cortex in the Human,” Neuropsychologia, Vol. 42, No. 1, 2004, pp. 113-117. doi:10.1016/S0028-3932(03)00124-6
N. Lang, H. R. Siebner, Z. Chadaide, K. Boros, M. A. Nitsche, et al., “Bidirectional Modulation of Primary Visual Cortex Excitability: A Combined tDCS and rTMS Study,” Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, Vol. 48, No. 12, 2007, pp. 5782-5787. doi:10.1167/iovs.07-0706
C. J. Stagg, J. G. Best, M. C. Stephenson, J. O’Shea, M. Wylezinska, et al., “Polarity-Sensitive Modulation of Cortical Neurotransmitters by Transcranial Stimulation,” Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 29, No. 16, 2009, pp. 5202-5206. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4432-08.2009
A. Howes, R. L. Lewis and A. Vera, “Rational Adaptation under Task and Processing Constraints: Implications for Testing Theories of Cognition and Action,” Psychological Review, Vol. 116, No. 4, 2009, pp. 717-751.doi:10.1037/a0017187