Anodal High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Over the Left (but not Right) Parietal Cortex Facilitates Mental Arithmetic

Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) allow for investigating the functional involvement of specific brain areas in mental arithmetic. In this study, we employed for the first time high-definition (HD)-tDCS, which offers enhanced spatial precision, to explore the functional roles of the left and right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in mental arithmetic. A total of 25 participants underwent anodal left IPS, anodal right IPS, and sham stimulation in separate sessions in counterbalanced order while solving single- and multi-step addition and subtraction problems. We found that stimulation of the left IPS, but not the right IPS or sham stimulation, improved arithmetic performance speed. These results provide further evidence for the functional involvement of the left IPS in a broad range of arithmetic tasks and highlight the potential of NIBS for cognitive enhancement.