Neuromodulation of Cognition in Older Adults

Inclusion Criteria

• Men and women
• Age: 65 to 90 years
• English speaking
• Physically mobile
• working memory function between 0-75th percentile determined by screening results on the POSIT Baseline Cognitive Training computerized tasks.

Exclusion Criteria

• Neurological disorders (e.g., dementia, stroke, seizures, traumatic brain injury).
• Evidence of dementia (NACC UDS scores of 1.5 standard deviations below the mean for age, sex and education adjusted norms in a single cognitive domain on the task).
• Past opportunistic brain infection.
• Major psychiatric illness (schizophrenia, intractable affective disorder, current substance dependence diagnosis or severe major depression and/or suicidality).
• Unstable (e.g., cancer other than basal cell skin) and chronic (e.g, severe diabetes) medical conditions.
• MRI contraindications (e.g., pregnancy, claustrophobia, metal implants that are contraindicated for MRI).
• Physical impairment precluding motor response or lying still for 1 hr and inability to walk two blocks without stopping.
• Certain prescription medications may possibly reduce effects otherwise induced by the tDCS stimulation protocol.
• Hearing or vision deficits that will not allow for standardized cognitive training.
• Left handedness