Altering cortical activity using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to improve working memory (WM) performance. Due to large inter-experimental variability in the tDCS montage configuration and strength of induced electric fields, results have been mixed. Here, we present a novel meta-analytic method relating behavioral effect sizes to electric field strength to identify brain regions underlying largest tDCS-induced WM improvement. Simulations on 69 studies targeting left prefrontal cortex showed that tDCS electric field strength in lower dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Brodmann area 45/47) relates most strongly to improved WM performance. This region explained 7.8 % of variance, equaling a medium effect. A similar region was identified when correlating WM performance and electric field strength of right prefrontal tDCS studies (n = 18). Maximum electric field strength of five previously used tDCS configurations were outside of this location. We thus propose a new tDCS montage which maximizes the tDCS electric field strength in that brain region. Our findings can benefit future tDCS studies that aim to affect WM function.

使用经颅直流电刺激 (tDCS) 改变皮质活动已被证明可以改善工作记忆 (WM) 性能。由于 tDCS 蒙太奇配置和感应电场强度的实验间差异很大，结果好坏参半。在这里，我们提出了一种新的元分析方法，将行为效应大小与电场强度联系起来，以识别最大 tDCS 诱导的 WM 改善的大脑区域。针对左前额叶皮层的 69 项研究的模拟表明，下背外侧前额叶皮层（Brodmann 区域 45/47）的 tDCS 电场强度与 WM 性能的改善密切相关。该区域解释了 7.8% 的方差，相当于中等效应。当关联 WM 性能和右前额 tDCS 研究的电场强度时，确定了一个类似的区域 (n = 18)。五个先前使用的 tDCS 配置的最大电场强度不在此位置。因此，我们提出了一种新的 tDCS 蒙太奇，它可以最大化该大脑区域的 tDCS 电场强度。我们的研究结果可以有益于未来旨在影响 WM 功能的 tDCS 研究。