Methods to Enhance Transcranial Direct Stimulation (tDCS)

The University of New South Wales

Status

Completed

Conditions

Healthy Volunteers

Brain Excitation

Treatments

Other: Transcranial direct Stimulation (tDCS) and D-cycloserine

Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT01135953

HREC09344

Details and patient eligibility

About

tDCS has been shown to be an effective treatment for depression. However, tDCS is a relatively new clinical tool and more needs to be understood about its use. This study hopes to further the field of knowledge by examining how tDCS should be optimally used. Application of tDCS in clinical trials of depression is typically to the prefrontal cortex, but in this project, tDCS application will be to the motor cortex as it provides a more ready measure of excitability. Excitability will be measured using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to the motor cortex and electromyography (EMG) recordings from peripheral muscles stimulated. Using a cross-over three-arm design this study aims to investigate whether daily tDCS administered in increasing intensity across sessions leads to greater and lasting effects on brain excitability than keeping the intensity at a same dose across the days and whether the excitatory effect could be enhanced with D-cycloserine, a medication known to prolong the excitatory effects of a single session of tDCS. This in turn will inform on how to optimize tDCS for therapeutic applications, e.g treatment of depression. The study hypothesis is that 5 sessions of tDCS with a dose of D-cycloserine given on the Monday and Thursday sessions will result in more sustained effect on motor cortex excitability than 5 sessions of tDCS alone. The second hypothesis is that the gradational increases in tDCS intensity over 5 sessions will result in greater motor cortex excitability than 5 sessions of tDCS where intensity is kept constant across sessions.

Enrollment

24 estimated patients

Sex

Male

Ages

18 to 40 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Male
Right handed (> 18/20 on the Edinburgh Handedness)
Aged 18-40

Exclusion criteria

Mental illness
General medical illness
Neurological illness, epilepsy
Alcohol use above National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines
Smokers
Excessive caffeine intake
Illicit drug use
Herbal medication use
Electronic implant, e.g, cochlear implant, pacemaker
Musculoskeletal problem in the arm