Abstract
Non-invasive brain stimulation modulates cortical excitability depending on the initial activation state of the structure being stimulated. Combination of cognitive with neurophysiological stimulations has been successfully employed to modulate responses of specific brain regions. The present research combined a neurophysiological pre-conditioning with a cognitive conditioning stimulation to modulate behavior. We applied this new state-dependency approach to investigate the cerebellar role in musical and spatial information processing, given that a link between musical perception and visuo-spatial abilities and a clear cerebellar involvement in music perception and visuo-spatial tasks have been reported. Cathodal, anodal or sham transcranial cerebellar Direct Current Stimulation (tcDCS) pre-conditioning was applied on the left cerebellar hemisphere followed by conditioning stimulation through music or white noise listening in a sample of healthy subjects performing a Line Bisection Task (LBT). The combination of the cathodal stimulation with music listening resulted in a marked attentional shift toward the right hemispace, compensating thus the natural leftward bias of the baseline condition (pseudoneglect). Conversely, the anodal or sham pre-conditioning stimulations combined with either music and white noise conditioning listening did not modulate spatial attention. The efficacy of the combined stimulation (cathodal pre-conditioning and music conditioning) and the absence of any effect of the single stimulations provide a strong support to the state-dependency theory. They propose that tcDCS in combination with music listening could act as a rehabilitative tool to improve cognitive functions in the presence of neglect or other spatial disorders.
Highlights
The recent state-dependency theory proposes that the effects of an external stimulus on brain excitability depend on the properties of that particular stimulus and on the activation state of the brain structures involved (Boly et al, 2007; Becker et al, 2008, 2011; Silvanto et al, 2008)
Subjects did not complain of any harmful effects of transcranial cerebellar Direct Current Stimulation (tcDCS)
The pseudoneglect implies a mild, spontaneous preference for left hemispace related to a dominance of the right cerebral hemisphere in spatial judgments (Corbetta et al, 1993) that extends to the mental representation of space (Oliveri et al, 2004; Brooks et al, 2014)
Summary
The recent state-dependency theory proposes that the effects of an external stimulus on brain excitability depend on the properties of that particular stimulus and on the activation state of the brain structures involved (Boly et al, 2007; Becker et al, 2008, 2011; Silvanto et al, 2008). The state-dependency approach has been mainly applied by using neurophysiological brain stimulations for both pre-conditioning and conditioning of brain excitability (tDCS and rTMS) (Lang et al, 2004; Siebner et al, 2004). The activation states of distinct neural regions have been functionally (and not neurophysiologically) pre-conditioned prior to the application of a subsequent neurophysiological conditioning stimulation Sensory (differently filtered sounds) or cognitive (visual priming, motor imagery, observation of motor behavior) stimulations have been used as pre-conditioning tools (Cattaneo et al, 2008, 2010; Weisz et al, 2012)
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