{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90476"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/90476","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Can high definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) enhance cognitive training and transfer?","abstract":"The INSIGHT project combines cognitive training with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) with the goal of enhancing fluid intelligence (Gf) and adaptive problem solving in healthy adults. 129 young to middle-aged subjects completed 20 1hr cognitive training sessions with a videogame called Mind Frontiers while receiving HD-tDCS. Mind Frontiers was developed for the INISGHT project and comprised six adaptively difficult cognitive training tasks. HD-tDCS was applied for 30 minutes (active) or 30 seconds (sham) at 2.0 mA at the start of each training session, with anodes placed bilaterally over the prefrontal cortex. Before and after cognitive training, participants completed a battery of tasks to assess Gf, executive function, working memory, and episodic memory. Participants who received active tDCS showed improved performance on the Mind Frontiers games compared to those who received sham. Transfer to untrained tasks, however, was unaffected; no comparable improvements in transfer from pre- to post-training were observed. Such results provide strong evidence that tDCS can enhance cognitive training performance but no evidence for enhanced transfer of learned skills to untrained tasks. When individual differences were examined, Gf was found to be an effective predictor of trained task improvement and age moderated the beneficial effect of HD-tDCS on training performance, with younger subjects benefitting more than old. An alternative explanation of the results, an acute effect of tDCS on vigilance decrement, was evaluated but evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions. To summarize, tDCS appears to be more effective at enhancing performance of specific skills than improving general cognitive abilities, and this effect is stronger in younger adults.","abstract_html":"The INSIGHT project combines cognitive training with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) with the goal of enhancing fluid intelligence (Gf) and adaptive problem solving in healthy adults. 129 young to middle-aged subjects completed 20 1hr cognitive training sessions with a videogame called Mind Frontiers while receiving HD-tDCS. Mind Frontiers was developed for the INISGHT project and comprised six adaptively difficult cognitive training tasks. HD-tDCS was applied for 30 minutes (active) or 30 seconds (sham) at 2.0 mA at the start of each training session, with anodes placed bilaterally over the prefrontal cortex. Before and after cognitive training, participants completed a battery of tasks to assess Gf, executive function, working memory, and episodic memory. Participants who received active tDCS showed improved performance on the Mind Frontiers games compared to those who received sham. Transfer to untrained tasks, however, was unaffected; no comparable improvements in transfer from pre- to post-training were observed. Such results provide strong evidence that tDCS can enhance cognitive training performance but no evidence for enhanced transfer of learned skills to untrained tasks. When individual differences were examined, Gf was found to be an effective predictor of trained task improvement and age moderated the beneficial effect of HD-tDCS on training performance, with younger subjects benefitting more than old. An alternative explanation of the results, an acute effect of tDCS on vigilance decrement, was evaluated but evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions. To summarize, tDCS appears to be more effective at enhancing performance of specific skills than improving general cognitive abilities, and this effect is stronger in younger adults.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sipolins, Aldis Gunars"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kramer, Arthur F.","Barbey, Aron K","Cohen, Neal J.","Wang, Frances","Hillman, Charles H."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-07-07T19:52:54Z","date_published":"2016-07-07T19:52:54Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:26:32Z","subjects":["cognitive training","neuromodulation"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2016 Aldis Sipolins"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90476","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kramer, Arthur F.","Barbey, Aron K","Cohen, Neal J.","Wang, Frances","Hillman, Charles H."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sipolins, Aldis Gunars"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2016-07-07T19:52:54Z","2016-02-16","2016-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["cognitive training","neuromodulation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2016 Aldis Sipolins"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/90476"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The INSIGHT project combines cognitive training with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) with the goal of enhancing fluid intelligence (Gf) and adaptive problem solving in healthy adults. 129 young to middle-aged subjects completed 20 1hr cognitive training sessions with a videogame called Mind Frontiers while receiving HD-tDCS. Mind Frontiers was developed for the INISGHT project and comprised six adaptively difficult cognitive training tasks. HD-tDCS was applied for 30 minutes (active) or 30 seconds (sham) at 2.0 mA at the start of each training session, with anodes placed bilaterally over the prefrontal cortex. Before and after cognitive training, participants completed a battery of tasks to assess Gf, executive function, working memory, and episodic memory. Participants who received active tDCS showed improved performance on the Mind Frontiers games compared to those who received sham. Transfer to untrained tasks, however, was unaffected; no comparable improvements in transfer from pre- to post-training were observed. Such results provide strong evidence that tDCS can enhance cognitive training performance but no evidence for enhanced transfer of learned skills to untrained tasks. When individual differences were examined, Gf was found to be an effective predictor of trained task improvement and age moderated the beneficial effect of HD-tDCS on training performance, with younger subjects benefitting more than old. An alternative explanation of the results, an acute effect of tDCS on vigilance decrement, was evaluated but evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions. To summarize, tDCS appears to be more effective at enhancing performance of specific skills than improving general cognitive abilities, and this effect is stronger in younger adults.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. 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When individual differences were examined, Gf was found to be an effective predictor of trained task improvement and age moderated the beneficial effect of HD-tDCS on training performance, with younger subjects benefitting more than old. An alternative explanation of the results, an acute effect of tDCS on vigilance decrement, was evaluated but evidence was insufficient to draw firm conclusions. To summarize, tDCS appears to be more effective at enhancing performance of specific skills than improving general cognitive abilities, and this effect is stronger in younger adults.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2016-07-07 without embargo terms","The student, Aldis Sipolins, accepted the attached license on 2016-02-14 at 10:02.","The student, Aldis Sipolins, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-02-14 at 10:17.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-02-16 at 09:11.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9078 on 2016-07-07 at 13:27:27","Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-07T19:52:54Z (GMT). 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