Treating Word Finding Difficulties in Traumatic Brain Injury With HD-tDCS

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Traumatic Brain Injury; Cognitive Change; Acquired Brain Injury; Word Finding Difficulty

Treatments: Device: Sham Transcranial direct current stimulation; Device: Active Transcranial direct current stimulation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06840808

STU2022-0999 (Other Identifier)

23-231

STU2022-0999/23-231

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the study is to test whether low level electric stimulation, called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), on the part of the brain (i.e., pre-supplementary motor area) thought to aid in memory will improve verbal retrieval in civilian (non-military, non-veteran) participants with histories of traumatic brain injuries. The primary outcome measures are neuropsychological assessments of verbal retrieval, and the secondary measures are neuropsychological assessments of other cognitive abilities and electroencephalography (EEG) measures. Additionally, the study will examine the degree to which baseline assessments of cognition, concussion history, structural brain imaging, and EEG predict responses to treatment over time, both on assessments administered within the intervention period and at follow-up.

Full description

Using two treatment arms, the study will examine improvement of verbal retrieval and other cognitive deficits associated with remote traumatic brain injury by comparing (1) 1 milliamp transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) active treatment applied to presupplementary motor area for 20 minutes over 10 sessions to (2) sham tDCS following the same schedule. Additionally, after completing the initial active or sham treatment and 2-month follow-up testing sessions, participants will be invited back for newly assigned treatment conditions, 20 minutes over 10 sessions and will be re-evaluated at 2-months follow-up testing sessions.

Civilians with histories of traumatic brain injuries and observed cognitive deficits will be randomly assigned to one of the two treatment arms (and re-assigned for the second round of intervention, as described above). Primary outcome verbal retrieval measures, secondary neuropsychological and electroencephalography (EEG) measures, and prescreening assessments for study concussion history and contraindications for treatment will be collected prior to being assigned to a treatment arm (i.e., baseline).

Primary outcome verbal retrieval measures and secondary neuropsychological and electroencephalography (EEG) measures will be collected after treatment session 10 and one time following treatment competition (i.e., 2-months). For participants who complete the second round of intervention, primary outcome verbal memory measures and secondary neuropsychological and electroencephalography (EEG) measures will be collected again after treatment session 10 and one time following competition of the second treatment (i.e., 2-months).

Enrollment: 14 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 85 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Between the ages of 18-85
• Traumatic brain injury more than a year prior to study participation
• Word finding difficulty since the brain injury
• Fluent in speaking and reading English.

Exclusion criteria

• Implanted/electronic device, such as a pacemaker, metallic cranial or intracranial implant (e.g., ventriculoperitoneal shunt), or a neurostimulator (e.g., vagus nerve stimulator, spinal stimulator, deep brain stimulator, etc.).
• Skull defects
• History of a psychological or neurological disorder, including, dementia of any type, epilepsy or other seizure disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, brain tumor, present drug abuse, stroke, blood vessel abnormalities in the brain, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, or multiple sclerosis.
• Inability to give informed consent
• Military personnel or Veteran
• Currently pregnant
• Not fluent English speaker

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Crossover Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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14 participants in 2 patient groups

Active to Sham Transcranial direct current stimulation

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects in this arm will first be randomly assigned to receive active stimulation. After completion of active stimulation, subjects will be assigned to sham stimulation.

Treatment:

Device: Active Transcranial direct current stimulation

Device: Sham Transcranial direct current stimulation

Sham to Active transcranial direct current stimulation

Experimental group

Description:

Subjects in this arm will first be randomly assigned to receive sham stimulation. After completion of sham stimulation, subjects will be assigned to active stimulation.

Treatment:

Device: Active Transcranial direct current stimulation

Device: Sham Transcranial direct current stimulation