Effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on selective attention in healthy adults

Previous studies have shown that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) induced enhancement in individuals’ cognitive processes. Executive functions, particularly selective attention are one of the known underlying parts of cognitive processes by which human being can behave intelligent behavioral such as programming, reasoning and problem solving. Functional neuroimaging investigations demonstrated that selective attention is associated with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). The aim of this study is investigating the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on stroop task performance in healthy adults. Therefore thirty healthy subjects underwent single session of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) with frequency of 10 HZ, intensity of 110%RMT and duration of 12 minutes, on their left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and performed colour-word stroop task before and after stimulation. Response times for congruent and incongruent stimuli were recorded and stroop interference was calculated. Results demonstrated that response time for congruent stimuli has improved significantly in active group compared to sham group although there was no significant change in incongruent stimuli response time and stroop interference. These findings confirmed the role of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in top-down attentional control and also declared that high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has positive effect on selective attention.