Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) increases frontal-midline theta activity in the human EEG: A preliminary investigation of non-invasive stimulation

Rhythmical brain activity in the range between four and eight Hz acquired over frontal-midline EEG recording sites - so called frontal-midline theta activity - is regarded as one of the most prominent neural signatures of sustained attention. It is reported to parametrically increase with cognitive load and is thought to be generated in medial prefrontal cortex. Here we explored the possibility of using anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over frontal sites to enhance frontal-midline theta activity and to increase sustained attention performance. We used a small preliminary sample to test a novel direct current stimulation electrode configuration by which we were able to significantly increase frontal-midline theta amplitude in a resting condition after the end of the stimulation period. Using standardised low resolution electromagnetic tomography analysis the effect in the surface EEG was localised to right prefrontal and left medial prefrontal brain areas. Transcranial direct current stimulation did, however, not have any impact on behavioural performance during a sustained attention task. This most likely was due to a very fast washout of the stimulation's after effect on theta activity. Although these are only preliminary results from a rather small sample, this study demonstrates that transcranial direct current stimulation can be used to rather selectively enhance frontal-midline theta amplitude.