“Evidence against Benefits from Cognitive Training and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Healthy Older Adults”, 2020-10-26 (; similar):
Cognitive training and brain stimulation show promise for ameliorating age-related neurocognitive decline. However, evidence for this is controversial.
In a Registered Report, we investigated the effects of these interventions, where 133 older adults were allocated to 4 groups (left prefrontal cortex anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with decision-making training, and 3 control groups) and trained over 5 days. They completed a task/questionnaire battery pre-training and post-training, and at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. COMT and BDNF Val/Met polymorphisms were also assessed.
Contrary to work in younger adults, there was evidence against tDCS-induced training enhancement on the decision-making task. Moreover, there was evidence against transfer of training gains to untrained tasks or everyday function measures at any post-intervention time points.
As indicated by exploratory work, individual differences may have influenced outcomes. But, overall, the current decision-making training and tDCS protocol appears unlikely to lead to benefits for older adults.