Investigating the Cognitive and Electrophysiological Effects of Non-Invasive Transcranial Electrical Stimulation in Healthy Individuals and Individuals with Major Depressive Disorder

Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques have shown potential to improve cognition in healthy individuals and treat the cognitive impairments associated with various psychiatric and neurological illnesses, however effects tend to be highly variable. The current thesis found that a novel form of brain stimulation can induce more reliable improvements in cognitive performance in healthy individuals. This research also improved understanding regarding the neural underpinnings of cognitive impairment in depression, and informed the mechanisms through which brain stimulation alters cognition in this population.