Abstract
Evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology suggests that portions of the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) play a critical role in proper name retrieval. We previously found that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the ATLs improved retrieval of proper names in young adults (Ross et al., 2010). Here we extend that finding to older adults who tend to experience greater proper-naming deficits than young adults. The task was to look at pictures of famous faces or landmarks and verbally recall the associated proper name. Our results show a numerical improvement in face naming after left or right ATL stimulation, but a statistically significant effect only after left-lateralized stimulation. The magnitude of the enhancing effect was similar in older and younger adults but the lateralization of the effect differed depending on age. The implications of these findings for the use of tDCS as tool for rehabilitation of age-related loss of name recall are discussed.
Highlights
An inability to remember proper names is one of the most common complaints of older adults (Leirer et al, 1990)
In the present study we investigated whether stimulation of the anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) by means of transcranial direct current stimulation to the scalp is effective in modulating the recall of proper names for well-known people and landmarks in older adults. tDCS is a technique by which small electric currents are applied to the scalp
In a recent study conducted in a young adult population, we showed that anodal tDCS can enhance proper name recall for famous faces when applied over the ATLs, in the right hemisphere (Ross et al, 2010)
Summary
An inability to remember proper names is one of the most common complaints of older adults (Leirer et al, 1990). All forms of associative memory appear to decline with healthy aging (Howard et al, 2006; Yonelinas et al, 2007), but the arbitrary nature of the relationship between faces and names makes this a demanding cognitive task for older adults. Applied to the human scalp, this increase or decrease of cortical excitability has been shown to extend beyond the time of the actual application of the current and may last as long as 90 min (Nitsche et al, 2003; Iyer et al, 2005) These longer-lasting effects may be mediated, in part, by changes at NMDA receptors, known to subserve cortical plasticity involved in learning and memory (e.g., Morris et al, 1986; Fertonani et al, 2010). Of special interest here is that tDCS has been shown to affect language functions manifested by enhanced language learning (Floel et al, 2008; de Vries et al, 2010; Liuzzi et al, 2010) and object naming (Fertonani et al, 2010), and has already shown to be a promising tool for the rehabilitation of language function in aphasia (Monti et al, 2008; Fiori et al, 2010; Fridriksson et al, 2011)
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