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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05623072

The Effect of tDCS on Emotion Recognition and EEG

Purpose and Importance of the Project: Emotion recognition, which is defined as the process of interpreting an individual's emotional state by looking at their facial expressions, is important in maintaining social relations and communication in a healthy way. Difficulties in emotion recognition can be seen in various neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is one of the regions that is important in the function of emotion recognition from facial expressions. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive, painless method of brain stimulation that provides either excitatory or inhibitory effects on different parts of the brain. When the literature is examined, it is seen that studies on the effectiveness of tDCS on emotion recognition are limited and stimulation is generally applied to the right or left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex areas in these studies. On the other hand, no study has been found examining the effect of stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex on emotion recognition. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the effect of anodal stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is significantly related to emotion recognition skills, on emotion recognition and EEG oscillations.

Methods: It is an experimental, randomised controlled trial. The data will be collected with the convenience sampling method from healthy and volunteer participants. The matched-group design method will be used. As a result of the power analysis, it was determined that the current study should be done with at least 34 participants. In the study, it is aimed to include a total of 60 participants in the experimental (tDCS) and control (sham) groups. Measurement instruments are "Informed Voluntary Consent Form"; "Demographic Information Form"; "Edinburgh Hand Preference Survey"; "Beck Depression Scale"; "Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set - Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV)"; "Mind-Reading Test"; EEG and tDCS devices. Participants will be subjected to the emotion recognition task before and after the tDCS. In addition, resting state EEG recordings will be taken before and after the tDCS from 34 participants.

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Key information

Conditions

Emotion Recognition

Age range

18 year–40 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Istanbul Medipol University

Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye)

About this study

Measurement instruments:

  • Informed Voluntary Consent Form
  • Demographic Information Form
  • Edinburgh Hand Preference Survey
  • Beck Depression Scale
  • Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set - Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV)
  • Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test
  • EEG and tDCS devices

Statistics:

The findings obtained from experimental and control groups the pretest-posttest of the emotion recognition and resting state EEG measurement will be evaluated with Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (within and between groups) (or Friedman Analysis, which is its non-parametric counterpart). For all tests applied to the variables, the significance value will be accepted as p<0.05.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Being between the ages of 18-40,
  • Having a score of 17 or less on the Beck Depression Inventory

Exclusion criteria

  • Having a history of serious neurological and psychiatric illness,
  • Currently taking medication that alters the cortical excitability level,
  • Having visual defects that cannot be corrected with glasses,
  • Left hand dominant,
  • Use of intracranial metal objects, implanted stimulating devices or pacemakers

Treatment and study plan

active tDCS

Device

20 min, 2 milliampere (mA), Anodal tDCS in vmPFC

Sham tDCS

Device

20 min, vmPFC Sham tDCS

Primary outcomes

  1. Change in EEG Oscillations for active vs. sham stimulation

    Time frame: Baseline, 5 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation

    The EEG oscillations recording is to measure resting-state brain oscillations from pre and post measurements. There are the five frequencies band which are Delta (0.5-3,5 Hz), Theta (4-7 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), Beta (15-30 Hz) and Gamma (30-100 Hz). Data will be record simultaneously and analyzed. The analysis will be done with the BrainVisionAnalyzer program and power analysis will be made in Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, Gamma bands and the averages will be compared. Oscillations will be evaluated in terms of averages changing as an indicator of the effect of the neuromodulation preceding it.

  2. Change in Emotion Recognition Task score for active vs. sham stimulation

    Time frame: Baseline, 20 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation

    The task used to measure emotion recognition skills from pre and post test score.

    -Amsterdam Dynamic Facial Expression Set - Bath Intensity Variations (ADFES-BIV) is a standard set of video stimuli of emotional expressions. Task results are changing between 0-81 points. Score averages will compare between pre and post test. Data will be record Excel by Psychopy program simultaneously. Performance will be evaluated for accuracy as an indicator of the effect of the neuromodulation preceding it.

  3. Change in Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test

    Time frame: Baseline, 20 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation

    -Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a task that asked to mark the option that best describes what the person in the picture is thinking or feeling. Task results are changing between 0-32 points. Score averages will compare between pre and post test. Performance will be evaluated for accuracy as an indicator of the effect of the neuromodulation preceding it.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Istanbul Medipol University Hospital

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Effect of tDCS on Emotion Recognition and EEG Oscillations in Healthy Adults

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Nov 21, 2022
Registry last updated
Sep 6, 2023

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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