Abstract
There has been wide interest in the role of neuromodulation in improving cognitive performance of persons who have suffered deficits due to disorders or in persons seeking to improve baseline performance. We summarize human and animal experiments suggesting that exogenous electrical stimulation of targeted areas of the human brain together with a task activating the same area might improve connectivity by increasing Fractional Anisotropy (FA). In this study we recruited 14 normal undergraduate volunteers who underwent 20 days of theta electrical stimulation from scalp electrodes while performing the Attention Network Test. We found evidence of improved overall reaction time over the first three days of practice, enhanced ability to resolve conflict over the first 15 days, and increased intrinsic theta near the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). While, we did not find evidence of enhanced FA either in pathways surrounding the ACC close to the targeted area, nor in control pathways far from the target of stimulation, the data suggest this line of research warrants further study.