Skip to content

The Effect of tDCS on Emotion Recognition and EEG

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

Status
Completed
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05623072
Enrollment
56
Registered
2022-11-21
Start date
2022-12-15
Completion date
2023-06-15
Last updated
2023-09-06

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Emotion Recognition

Keywords

Emotion Recognition, tDCS, EEG Oscillations, vmPFC

Brief summary

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.

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.

Interventions

DEVICEActive tDCS

20 min, 2 milliampere (mA), Anodal tDCS in vmPFC

DEVICESham tDCS

20 min, vmPFC Sham tDCS

Sponsors

Istanbul Medipol University Hospital
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)

Masking description

Participants will not know that which group they will be in

Intervention model description

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.

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 40 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes

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

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Change in EEG Oscillations for active vs. sham stimulationBaseline, 5 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulationThe 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.
Change in Emotion Recognition Task score for active vs. sham stimulationBaseline, 20 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulationThe 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.
Change in Reading the Mind in the Eyes TestBaseline, 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.

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026