Suppressing verbal working memory with cathodal tDCS over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to promote implicit motor learning

Abstract

Introduction Compared to explicit motor learning, implicit motor learning has been shown to produce performance that is more stable in conditions of psychological stress, multitasking and even physiological fatigue. Therefore, researchers have deliberately attempted to devise implicit motor learning paradigms that bypass working memory during motor learning and thus reduce explicit verbal-analytical involvement in performance. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is widely used as a noninvasive brain stimulation technique to modulate cortical excitability. Previous research has shown that tDCS over left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can be used to modulate working memory. We hypothesized that ...