Neuro-Modulation in Dorsal Premotor Cortex Facilitates Human Multi-Task Ability

Yusuke Suzuki, Eiichi Naito

CiNet, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kyoto, Japan.
Cognitive Mechanisms Laboratories, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, Kyoto, Japan.

DOI: 10.4236/jbbs.2012.23042                

Abstract

Humans are limited in their ability to perform multiple cognitive-motor tasks in parallel. In eight participants, we examined whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to dorsal premotor cortex (PMD) could attenuate a delay of reaction time (RT) while the participants responded to two visual stimuli presented in temporally close succession. We provided anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS while the participants performed a task requiring two choice responses or a control task requiring two fixed responses. When the interval between the two stimuli was shorter, the RTs were delayed in both tasks, but anodal tDCS shortened them only in the former task, probably by promoting the response selection function of PMD. Non-invasive neuro-modulation to the brain can boost human ability to multi-task.

Keywords

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS); Psychological Refractory Period (PRP); Dorsal Premotor Cortex (PMD); Response Selection

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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