A systematic review of transcranial direct current stimulation on eye movements and associated psychological function

Abstract

Abstract The last decades have seen a rise in the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) approaches to modulate brain activity and associated behavior. Concurrently, eye tracking (ET) technology has improved to allow more precise quantitative measurement of gaze behavior, offering a window into the mechanisms of vision and cognition. When combined, tDCS and ET provide a powerful system to probe brain function and measure the impact on visual function, leading to an increasing number of studies that utilize these techniques together. The current pre-registered, systematic review seeks to describe the literature that integrates these approaches with the goal of changing brain activity with tDCS and measuring associated changes in eye movements with ET. The literature search identified 26 articles that combined ET and tDCS in a probe-and-measure model and are systematically reviewed here. All studies implemented controlled interventional designs to address topics related to oculomotor control, cognitive processing, emotion regulation, or cravings in healthy volunteers and patient populations. Across these studies, active stimulation typically led to changes in the number, duration, and timing of fixations compared to control stimulation. Notably, half the studies addressed emotion regulation, each showing hypothesized effects of tDCS on ET metrics, while tDCS targeting the frontal cortex was widely used and also generally produced expected modulation of ET. This review reveals promising evidence of the impact of tDCS on eye movements and associated psychological function, offering a framework for effective designs with recommendations for future studies.