The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on social cognition in schizophrenia: A preliminary study.
In this preliminary study, we examined the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on social cognition in 36 individuals with schizophrenia. Participants received a baseline assessment and one week later received either anodal, cathodal, or sham tDCS, with 12 participants randomized to each condition. A single 20-minute session tDCS was administered bilaterally over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (centered at positions Fp1 and Fp2) at 2 mA. Among the 4 social cognitive tasks, participants showed a significant improvement on one of them, emotion identification, following anodal stimulation. Findings demonstrate the safety of this procedure and suggest potential therapeutic effects on one aspect of social cognition in schizophrenia.
Department of Psychology and Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: yurir@ucla.edu.
Yuri
Y
Rassovsky
Department of Veteran Affairs VISN-22 Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Walter
W
Dunn
Department of Veteran Affairs VISN-22 Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Jonathan
J
Wynn
Department of Neurology, University of CA, Los Angeles, USA.
Allan D
AD
Wu
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of CA, Los Angeles, USA.
Marco
M
Iacoboni
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Gerhard
G
Hellemann
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Veteran Affairs VISN-22 Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Michael F
MF
Green
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Neurocognition; Schizophrenia; Social cognition; Transcranial direct current stimulation; tDCS