Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

In a randomized sham-controlled crossover study, we measured how combined transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) paired with listening to autobiographically salient music alters the neural processing of speech in older adults. tDCS neurostimulation improved working memory pre- to post-session and was associated with better speech-in-noise listening skills. The findings provide new causal evidence that combined tDCS+music (i) modulates the early (100–150 ms) cortical encoding of speech and (ii) improves working memory, a cognitive skill which may indirectly bolster noise-degraded speech perception in older listeners.