@misc{10481/93965,
year = {2024},
month = {4},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/93965},
abstract = {Maintaining vigilance is essential for many everyday tasks, but over time, our ability to sustain it
inevitably decreases, potentially entailing severe consequences. High-definition transcranial direct
current stimulation (HD-tDCS) has proven to be useful for studying and improving vigilance. This study
explores if/how cognitive load affects the mitigatory effects of HD-tDCS on the vigilance decrement.
Participants (N = 120) completed a modified ANTI-Vea task (single or dual load) while receiving either
sham or anodal HD-tDCS over the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC). This data was compared with
data from prior studies (N = 120), where participants completed the standard ANTI-Vea task (triple
load task), combined with the same HD-tDCS protocol. Against our hypotheses, both the single and
dual load conditions showed a significant executive vigilance (EV) decrement, which was not affected
by the application of rPPC HD-tDCS. On the contrary, the most cognitively demanding task (triple
task) showed the greatest EV decrement; importantly, it was also with the triple task that a significant
mitigatory effect of the HD-tDCS intervention was observed. The present study contributes to a more
nuanced understanding of the specific effects of HD-tDCS on the vigilance decrement considering
cognitive demands. This can ultimately contribute to reconciling heterogeneous effects observed in
past research and fine-tuning its future clinical application.},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [research project
PSI2017-84926-P and PID2020.114790 GB.I00, and research project PID2020-116342GA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033]},
organization = {Andalusian Council and European Regional
Development Fund [research project B.CTS.132.UGR20]},
organization = {Spanish Ministry of Science
and Education [grant nr. FPU2018/02865]},
publisher = {Springer Nature},
title = {HD‑tDCS mitigates the executive vigilance decrement only under high cognitive demands},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-024-57917-y},
author = {Hemmerich, Klara and Lupiáñez Castillo, Juan and Martín Arévalo, Elisa},
}