Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising tool for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, especially dysexecutive syndromes. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital previously showed in Brain Stimulation that tDCS targeting the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) improved selective attention, conflict monitoring and response inhibition in healthy volunteers.
Building on that research, Laura Dubreuil-Vall, PhD, research fellow, and Joan A. Camprodon, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Neuropsychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, and colleagues have now demonstrated beneficial cognitive effects of tDCS in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). They published their results in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
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Dubreuil-Vall L, Chau P, Ruffini G, Widge AS, Camprodon JA. tDCS to the left DLPFC modulates cognitive and physiological correlates of executive function in a state-dependent manner. Brain Stimul. 2019 Nov-Dec;12(6):1456-1463. Free article.
Dubreuil-Vall L, Gomez-Bernal F, Villegas AC, Cirillo P, Surman C, Ruffini G, Widge AS, Camprodon JA. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Improves Cognitive Control in Patients With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Randomized Behavioral and Neurophysiological Study. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 Apr;6(4):439-448.
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Joan A. Camprodon, MD, MPH, PhD is the Chief of the Division of Neuropsychiatry, Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Clinical Service, Director of the Laboratory for Neuropsychiatry & Neuromodulation at Mass General, and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His research uses multimodal combinations of brain stimulation, neuroimaging, and neurophysiology to investigate neural circuitry and plasticity in a translational manner. His research includes basic, translational, and clinical projects focused on human circuit neuroscience. Critical efforts are geared towards applying the paradigms and methods of human systems/cognitive neuroscience to discover treatment targets that support the development of individualized precision therapeutics, with a focus on image-guided device-based neuromodulation.
