Neural Noise

Enhanced cognitive performance in older adults through combined cognitive training and tDCS

3 min read

  • Combined cognitive training and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves cognitive outcomes in older adults.1
  • The result supports use of transcranial stimulation in cognitive enhancement and is relevant to tDCS trial design.1
  • The evidence is reported in Nature.1 1

Gardner updates

  • Transcranial direct current stimulation in elderly individuals has been studied for its impact on anxiety and depression symptoms (Wiley). 2
  • Population-specific tDCS for elderly supports the growing relevance of this population for neuromodulation. 2

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

  • The underlying study was published in Nature’s Scientific Reports (2025, article s41598-025-08322-6) and paired two cognitive-training approaches — core training (working-memory focused) and strategy training — with anodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).3
  • It enrolled 85 older adults (ages 55–92, mean 81.7, SD 7.4; mean education 13.03 years) randomized into three arms: cognitive training with active tDCS, cognitive training with sham tDCS, and a control group attending memory-related lectures.3
  • Each participant completed 16 intervention sessions of 50 minutes each, with cognitive assessments at three timepoints: pre-intervention, immediately after, and three months post-intervention, using a double-blind mixed design.3
  • The active-tDCS group showed immediate and sustained improvements across all cognitive tests, whereas the sham-tDCS group improved only on specific memory tasks and the lecture control group showed no significant change.3
  • The a priori G*Power 3.1 power analysis targeted 80% power for an estimated moderate effect size (d = 0.35, α = 0.05), requiring 80 participants; eligibility required a MoCA score of 19 or higher, and participants were stratified by age and education.3
  • Mechanistically, the authors attribute lasting gains to anodal tDCS modulating resting membrane potentials and priming DLPFC activity during training; they cite evidence that repeated anodal sessions can extend cortical excitability effects for over 24 hours and prior combined protocols sustaining benefits up to 12 months.3
  • Context: results across the field are mixed and dose-dependent — the large multisite ACT trial (NCT02851511) randomized 379 non-demented older adults to a 12-week BrainHQ-plus-tDCS scheme with 12-month follow-up, and a 2026 home-delivered BMC Geriatrics trial in 41 MCI-due-to-Alzheimer’s participants used 10 daily sessions, finding domain-specific gains in global cognition and verbal memory.4 5
  • A separate single-blind randomized trial in non-demented older adults (NCT03838211) delivered nine cognitive-training sessions over three weeks with concurrent anodal tDCS at 1 mA for 20 minutes over the left DLPFC, illustrating that stimulation intensity, session count, and follow-up length vary widely across studies.6

Footnotes

  1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE83VVdDVmllZTlXYWVhWVZUQWZ1dkVsR1lwMGR1Vy05dm1hUFRFVXVZaGNIajhaWHpMNTc1Z0dVV3RSNXp6dmJPX2ZvekxFdFNINkdHa3ByNWphemtkM0xJ?oc=5 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMia0FVX3lxTE9DZlEwT0swTHp3OFp4RXBWdWd3VkpjTXJ6NFM3ZFVpRlkyclI1QmRWLVlualdVcFlNTW11WGVHM2tsXzQ5QmM4U3VDeWlROTlhd2RYelYzcklzTzhuSkRPbE1XcExjOUpIZXpB?oc=5 ↩ ↩2

  3. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-08322-6 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11336148/ ↩

  5. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12877-026-07481-z ↩

  6. https://pub.dzne.de/record/164020/files/DZNE-2022-00683.pdf ↩

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