Temporal interference stimulation targeting right frontoparietal areas enhances working memory in healthy individuals

Yufeng Zhang; Zhining Zhou; Junhong Zhou; Zhenyu Qian; Jiaojiao Lü; Lu Li; Yu Liu

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2022.918470

Temporal interference stimulation targeting right frontoparietal areas enhances working memory in healthy individuals

Front Hum Neurosci. 2022 Oct 28:16:918470. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.918470. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yufeng Zhang¹, Zhining Zhou¹, Junhong Zhou², Zhenyu Qian¹, Jiaojiao Lü¹, Lu Li¹, Yu Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Exercise and Health Sciences of Ministry of Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China.
² Hebrew SeniorLife, Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.

Abstract

Background: Temporal interference (TI) stimulation is a novel technique that enables the non-invasive modulation of deep brain regions. However, the implementation of this technology in humans has not been well-characterized or examined, including its safety and feasibility.

Objective: We aimed to examine the feasibility, safety, and blinding of using TI on human participants in this pilot study.

Materials and methods: In a randomized, single-blinded, and sham-controlled pilot study, healthy young participants were randomly divided into four groups [TI and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) targeting the right frontoparietal region, TI-sham, and tACS-sham]. Each participant was asked to complete N-back (N = 1 to 3) tasks before, during, and after one session of stimulation to assess their working memory (WM). The side effects and blinding efficacy were carefully assessed. The accuracy, reaction time (RT), and inverse efficiency score (IES, reaction time/accuracy) of the N-back tasks were measured.

Results: No severe side effects were reported. Only mild-to-moderate side effects were observed in those who received TI, which was similar to those observed in participants receiving tACS. The blinding efficacy was excellent, and there was no correlation between the severity of the reported side effects and the predicted type of stimulation that the participants received. WM appeared to be only marginally improved by TI compared to tACS-sham, and this improvement was only observed under high-load cognitive tasks. WM seemed to have improved a little in the TI-sham group. However, it was not observed significant differences between TI and TI-sham or TI and tACS in all N-back tests.

Conclusion: Our pilot study suggests that TI is a promising technique that can be safely implemented in human participants. Studies are warranted to confirm the findings of this study and to further examine the effects of TI-sham stimulation as well as the effects of TI on deeper brain regions.

Keywords: cognition; healthy human participants; temporal interference stimulation; transcranial alternating current stimulation; working memory.