Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Improves Reactive Response Inhibition in Healthy Volunteers

Jeffrey C Glennon,Inti A Brazil,Dennis J L G Schutter,Josi M A Driessen,Syanah C Wynn

doi:10.1007/s12311-019-01047-z

Abstract

Involvement of the cerebellum to non-motor related aspects of behavior is becoming increasingly clear. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the cerebellum in reactive and proactive behavioral control and interference. In a double-blind controlled within-subject design, 26 healthy volunteers underwent real and sham cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) while performing a go/no-go task and a delay discounting task. Results showed that the number of go/no-go commission errors was significantly lower during real as compared with sham cerebellar tDCS. No effects of tDCS were observed on delay discounting. Our findings provide further behavioral support for the involvement of the cerebellum in fast neural processes associated with response inhibition.

Highlights

The classical view that the cerebellum is primarily involved in motor-related functions is being challenged by a rapidly growing body of evidence in support of cerebellar involvement in cognitive and affective processes
The blinding procedure was successful as participants were not able to distinguish real from sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) (χ2(1) = 0.62, p = .43)
The angle between the applied electric field and the somatic-dendritic axis of the Purkinje cells (PC) is a critical factor in the magnitude and direction of polarization

Summary

Introduction

The classical view that the cerebellum is primarily involved in motor-related functions is being challenged by a rapidly growing body of evidence in support of cerebellar involvement in cognitive and affective processes. Neuropsychological studies have, for instance, demonstrated that cerebellar damage can cause impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and problems in behavioral inhibition [1,2,3,4,5]. This pattern of non-motorrelated symptoms is part of the cerebellar cognitive affective (Schmahmann’s) syndrome and is attributed to damage of the posterolateral parts of the cerebellum [4, 6, 7]. More recent functional neuroimaging studies have confirmed the role of the cerebellum in the regulation of both motor, affective, and cognitive processes [8,9,10,11,12,13].

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