Journal
BRAIN STIMULATION
Volume 7, Issue 4, Pages 508-515Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2014.03.001
Keywords
Slow oscillation stimulation; tDCS; EEG; Sleep; Memory consolidation
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB 654, SPP 1665]
- USA-German Collaboration in Computational Neuroscience (German Ministry of Education and Research BMBF) [01GQ1008, NIH-R01-MH-092926-01]
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Background: The importance of slow-wave sleep (SWS), hallmarked by the occurrence of sleep slow oscillations (SO), for the consolidation of hippocampus-dependent memories has been shown in numerous studies. Previously, the application of transcranial direct current stimulation, oscillating at the frequency of endogenous slow oscillations, during SWS enhanced memory consolidation for a hippocampus dependent task in humans suggesting a causal role of slowly oscillating electric fields for sleep dependent memory consolidation. Objective: Here, we aimed to replicate and extend these findings to a rodent model. Methods: Slow oscillatory direct transcranial current stimulation (SO-tDCS) was applied over the frontal cortex of rats during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and its effects on memory consolidation in the one-trial object-place recognition task were examined. A retention interval of 24 h was used to investigate the effects of SO-tDCS on long-term memory. Results: Animals' preference for the displaced object was significantly greater than chance only when animals received SO-tDCS. EEG spectral power indicated a trend toward a transient enhancement of endogenous SO activity in the SO-tDCS condition. Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that slowly oscillating electric fields causal affect sleep dependent memory consolidation, and demonstrate that oscillatory tDCS can be a valuable tool to investigate the function of endogenous cortical network activity. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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