The Effect of tDCS Applied During Sleep on Memory Consolidation

March 28, 2023 updated by: Medical University of South Carolina

The Use of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation During Slow Wave Sleep in Healthy Students and Older Adults

This study will attempt to use a type of non-invasive brain stimulation technology during sleep to improve measures of sleep quality and memory in young healthy students and older adults. The type of brain stimulation is called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which uses small currents of electricity to increase or decrease the activity of specific areas of the brain.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe, non-invasive, and inexpensive brain stimulation modality that has been shown to have the ability to modulate both cortical and deep brain structure activity. This technique has undergone a significant amount of investigation in varied neuropsychiatric populations and interest in this technique has increased dramatically as of late.

Some researchers have studied the effects of this modality on sleep as well as memory with promising results. One such study demonstrated that by using bilateral tDCS with a pattern of stimulation in the delta frequency range (0-3 Hz) delivered during slow wave sleep, that it is possible to increase delta power during slow wave sleep, as well as improve sleep efficiency. In addition to showing that it is possible to enhance slow waves, it was also demonstrated that this increase was associated with an improvement of a measure of declarative memory consolidation (one of the theorized functions of slow wave sleep). Enhancing memory function in a normal healthy group raises the possibility that it would also be possible to enhance memory in clinical populations who would benefit from such an intervention.

The investigators propose to test this intervention for replication in a similar cohort.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

14

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • South Carolina
      • Charleston, South Carolina, United States, 29425
        • Medical University of South Carolina

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 60 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Students
  • Adults aged 60 or greater.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • If they are taking any prescription or over the counter medications.
  • If they have any currently active neurologic, psychiatric, hormonal, metabolic, circulatory, or sleep disturbances. -They must specifically not have a history of seizures, closed head injuries with loss of consciousness for greater than 5 minutes, any known brain tumors or lesions, metal implants or implanted devices above the neck, a history of eczema, or other sensitive conditions, or an allergy to latex.
  • They must not smoke cigarettes, use illicit drugs, or meet criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence in their lifetime defined by SCID criteria.
  • They must be free of alcohol for at least 48 hours prior to each night of the study
  • They must not consume more than the equivalent of 500mg of caffeine daily.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active tDCS stimulation
Anodal tDCS will be applied bi-frontally using Chattanooga Ionto™ Iontophoresis System - Phoresor. A square wave will be delivered at 0.75 Hz for five blocks of five minutes each with one minute inter-train interval. Stimulation will be applied following 8 epochs of consecutive stage 2 or deeper sleep.
tDCS is a type of brain stimulation that uses low current applied directly over the scalp to increase, or decrease cortical activity under the stimulating electrodes. tDCS applied bi-frontally using Chattanooga Ionto™ Iontophoresis System - Phoresor. A square wave will be delivered at 0.75 Hz for five blocks of five minutes each with one minute inter-train interval. Stimulation will be applied following 8 epochs of consecutive stage 2 or deeper sleep.
Sham Comparator: Sham tDCS stimulation
tDCS electrodes will be applied bi-frontally using Chattanooga Ionto™ Iontophoresis System - Phoresor, however stimulation will never be turned on.
tDCS device connected and tested, but not turned on during the night. This has been found to be an effective sham in other studies using this technique.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Declarative memory assessed by paired word association test
Time Frame: Pre sleep/intervention, and post sleep/intervention
Prior to and directly after a night of sleep we will assess declarative memory using a paired word association tests. In the pre-sleep assessment there will be a learning phase where the word list will be presented serially, until 60% of the words are retained. In the post sleep assessment the word list will be given again once. The outcome measure is the change in words retained between pre and post sleep assessments. Subsequently the followup interval is approximately 8-9 hours with baseline before bedtime, and follow up assessment once the patient is awoken.
Pre sleep/intervention, and post sleep/intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Gregory Sahlem, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 13, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 2, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

November 4, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 30, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 28, 2023

Last Verified

March 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00020393

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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