The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) in Improving Emotion Health

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Subthreshold Depression; Positive Emotions; Anhedonia; Negative Emotions

Treatments: Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07319143

17600425 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

EA240670

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate how transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) affects emotion functions in young adults aged 18-35 from the local community, including both male and female participants. The main question[s] it aims to answer are:

• Does tDCS improve emotional functions, such as mood regulation and motivation, in individuals with subthreshold depression (StD)?
• Can tDCS enhance emotional regulation compared to a sham stimulation (placebo)?

Researchers will compare participants receiving tDCS on either the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) or right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) with those receiving sham stimulation to see if tDCS has a stronger effect on emotional functions.

Participants will:

• Complete online and in-person screening to assess depressive symptoms using the Chinese version of the Beck Depression Inventory II (C-BDI-II) and be selected based on their depressive symptoms (C-BDI-II score ≥ 13).
• Be randomly assigned to one of three groups: lDLPFC tDCS, rVLPFC tDCS, or Sham control group (1:1:1 ratio).
• Receive 10 sessions of tDCS or Sham tDCS over 2 weeks, with each session lasting 20 minutes.
• Complete assessments at baseline, post-intervention, 1-month follow-up, and 3-month follow-up, with each assessment lasting 2-2.5 hours. This includes questionnaires and perform emotional and cognitive tasks.

Enrollment: 90 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 35 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18-35 years
• Fluency in Cantonese or Mandarin
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision and hearing
• IQ > 75% Quantile in Raven's SPM
• At least 9 years of formal education
• Right-handedness

Exclusion criteria

• Past or current major physical illness or psychiatric disorders
• Use of psychotropic medication in the past 6 months
• Pregnancy (for women)
• Any condition that prevents safe tDCS use (e.g., brain injury, implants)
• Previous participation in neuromodulation in the past 3 months

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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90 participants in 3 patient groups

IDLPFC

Experimental group

Description:

This intervention is a 20 minutes per session, two-week tDCS neuromodulation of IDLPFC region (anode: F3, cathode: FP2) designed to reduce depressive symptoms via enhancing positive emotion functions, thereby reducing anhedonia.

Treatment:

Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

rVLPFC

Experimental group

Description:

This intervention is a 20 minutes per session, two-week tDCS neuromodulation of rVLPFC region (anode: F6, cathode: FP1) designed to reduce depressive symptoms via regulating negative emotion functions, thereby reducing depressed mood.

Treatment:

Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Sham

Sham Comparator group

Description:

This is a 20 minutes per session, two-week Sham comparator of IDLPFC/rVLPFC region, participants will receive tDCS for 90 seconds at either IDLPFC/rVLPFC at the beginning of each session to stimulate real neuromodulation.

Treatment:

Device: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation