A comparison of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and caffeine on vigilance and cognitive performance during extended wakefulness.
Brain Stimul
; 7(4): 499-507, 2014.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25047826
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Sleep deprivation from extended duty hours is a common complaint for many occupations. Caffeine is one of the most common countermeasures used to combat fatigue. However, the benefits of caffeine decline over time and with chronic use.OBJECTIVE:
Our objective was to evaluate the efficacy of anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the pre-frontal cortex at 2 mA for 30 min to remediate the effects of sleep deprivation and to compare the behavioral effects of tDCS with those of caffeine.METHODS:
Three groups of 10 participants each received either active tDCS with placebo gum, caffeine gum with sham tDCS, or sham tDCS with placebo gum during 30 h of extended wakefulness.RESULTS:
Our results show that tDCS prevented a decrement in vigilance and led to better subjective ratings for fatigue, drowsiness, energy, and composite mood compared to caffeine and control in sleep-deprived individuals. Both the tDCS and caffeine produced similar improvements in latencies on a short-term memory task and faster reaction times in a psychomotor task when compared to the placebo group. Interestingly, changes in accuracy for the tDCS group were not correlated to changes in mood; whereas, there was a relationship for the caffeine and sham groups.CONCLUSION:
Our data suggest that tDCS could be a useful fatigue countermeasure and may be more beneficial than caffeine since boosts in performance and mood last several hours.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Atención
/
Privación de Sueño
/
Vigilia
/
Cafeína
/
Cognición
/
Estimulación Transcraneal de Corriente Directa
Tipo de estudio:
Clinical_trials
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Brain Stimul
Asunto de la revista:
CEREBRO
Año:
2014
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos