The Effect of tDCS on Emotion Recognition and EEG

September 5, 2023 updated by: erol yildirim, Istanbul Medipol University Hospital

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

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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

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.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

56

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

  • Turkey
      • Istanbul, Turkey
        • Istanbul Medipol University

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 40 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

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

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: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Experimental group
Participants will take active tDCS stimulation
Device: Active tDCS
20 min, 2 milliampere (mA), Anodal tDCS in vmPFC
Sham Comparator: Control group
Participants will take sham tDCS stimulation
Device: Sham tDCS
20 min, vmPFC Sham tDCS

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
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.
Baseline, 5 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
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.
Baseline, 20 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
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.
Baseline, 20 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Istanbul Medipol University Hospital

Investigators

  • Study Director: Lütfü Hanoğlu, Prof. Dr., Medipol University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

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 (Actual)

December 15, 2022

Primary Completion (Actual)

April 15, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

June 15, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 20, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 18, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

November 21, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 6, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 5, 2023

Last Verified

September 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • E-10840098-772.02-2695

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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