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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1454796
This article is part of the Research Topic Translational research advancements utilizing the Iowa Gambling Task in preclinical and clinical studies: 30 years of the IGT View all articles

The Effects of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on the Iowa Gambling Task: A Scoping Review

Provisionally accepted
Silvia Salice Silvia Salice Alessandro Antonietti Alessandro Antonietti Laura Colautti Laura Colautti *
  • Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Among the tasks employed to investigate decisional processes, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) appears to be the most effective since it allows for deepening the progressive learning process based on feedback on previous choices. Recently, the study of decision making through the IGT has been combined with the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to understand the cognitive mechanisms and the neural structures involved. However, to date no review regarding the effects of tDCS on decisional processes assessed through the IGT is available. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the potential effects of tDCS in enhancing decisional processes, assessed with the IGT, through the evaluation of the complete range of target cases. The existing literature was analyzed through the PRISMA approach. Results reported that tDCS can enhance performance in the IGT and highlighted a pivotal role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex in risky and ambiguous decisions. Thus, tDCS over the brain regions identified improves the decisional processes in healthy subjects and patients, confirming its potential to enhance decision making in everyday contexts and deepen the neural correlates. Suggestions for further studies are provided to delve into decisional mechanisms and how to better support them.

    Keywords: Decision Making, Iowa Gambling Task, transcranial direct current stimulation, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex

    Received: 25 Jun 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Salice, Antonietti and Colautti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Laura Colautti, Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy

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