Transcranial direct current stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex improves response inhibition

A number of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is a critical brain region for response inhibition. However, how it exerts this function remains unclear. This study investigated whether stimulating the right dlPFC by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) affects performance on stop signal task. A total of 92 healthy subjects were enrolled in the study and randomly divided into three groups. The anode group received anodal stimulation over the right dlPFC and cathodal stimulation over the left supraorbital; the cathode group received cathodal stimulation over the right dlPFC and anodal stimulation over the left supraorbital; and the sham group received sham tDCS. All subjects performed a computer-based stop-signal task before and after tDCS. Performance on the response inhibition task after tDCS was improved in groups with both anodal and cathodal stimulation. Specifically, there was a decrease in the stop-signal reaction time in these subjects, whereas no difference was observed in the sham group. Consistent with signal detection theory, discrimination and decision bias was improved by anode tDCS relative to the sham group, while discrimination was also improved in the cathode group. Anode and cathode tDCS of the right dlPFC improves response inhibition, with the right dlPFC may playing a key role in this process. •This study investigated whether stimulating the right dlPFC by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) affects performance on stop signal task.•There is at present no real consensus on the effects of anode and cathodal tDCS on the right dlPFC. However,our study involved all two interventions.•This study combined with the signal detection theory to study the effect of intervention.