tES (Transcranial Electrical Stimulation)
Investigating the neural bases for reasoning in the human brain using tES, in particular, transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS)
Guiding Questions
What is the neural basis underlying human reasoning?
What is the effect of tDCS on measures of reasoning and creativity? What is the effect of tACS on measures of reasoning and creativity?
How does stimulating specific brain networks with tDCS and tACS affect performance on creativity tasks?
How do individual differences in creativity-related neural hubs, as measured by tDCS and tACS stimulation, affect measures of creativity, and what does this reveal about the causal relationships within the creativity networks?
What factors mitigate the learning transfer from reasoning abilities to other cognitive tasks?
How are we studying this?
tDCS and tACS are non-invasive techniques that apply small electric currents (1-2 mA) to the scalp. These currents transiently modify local transneural electrical potentials in the brain, temporarily altering performance on a behavioral task. This approach allows us to directly investigate the causal role of specific brain hubs and networks in task performance.. To enhance the precision of tDCS and tACS in determining causal roles and to measure changes in neural activity, we will use structural and functional MRI on participants while they receive high-definition tDCS and tACS. Participants in the study will be trained on syllogistic reasoning tasks and then given unrelated tasks to assess the transfer from reasoning abilities.