The effect of bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation on early auditory processing in schizophrenia: a preliminary study

Walter Dunn; Yuri Rassovsky; Jonathan Wynn; Allan D Wu; Marco Iacoboni; Gerhard Hellemann; Michael F Green

doi:10.1007/s00702-017-1752-5

The effect of bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation on early auditory processing in schizophrenia: a preliminary study

J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2017 Sep;124(9):1145-1149. doi: 10.1007/s00702-017-1752-5. Epub 2017 Jul 7.

Authors

Walter Dunn^{1

2

3}, Yuri Rassovsky^{4

5}, Jonathan Wynn^{6

4}, Allan D Wu⁷, Marco Iacoboni^{4

8}, Gerhard Hellemann⁴, Michael F Green^{6

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterans Affairs VISN-22 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA. wdunn@mednet.ucla.edu.
² Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA. wdunn@mednet.ucla.edu.
³ West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, 11301 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90073, USA. wdunn@mednet.ucla.edu.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology and Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
⁶ Department of Veterans Affairs VISN-22 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁷ Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
⁸ Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

PMID: 28687908
DOI: 10.1007/s00702-017-1752-5

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied bilaterally over the auditory cortex in 12 schizophrenia patients to modulate early auditory processing. Performance on a tone discrimination task (tone-matching task-TMT) and auditory mismatch negativity were assessed after counterbalanced anodal, cathodal, and sham tDCS. Cathodal stimulation improved TMT performance (p < 0.03) compared to sham condition. Post-hoc analyses revealed a stimulation condition by negative symptom interaction in which greater negative symptoms were associated with a better TMT performance after anodal tDCS.

Keywords: Auditory processing; Mismatch negativity; Schizophrenia; Tone-matching task; Transcranial direct current stimulation; tDCS.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Antipsychotic Agents / therapeutic use
Auditory Perception / physiology*
Brain / physiopathology*
Cross-Over Studies
Discrimination, Psychological / physiology
Electroencephalography
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Preliminary Data
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Schizophrenia / physiopathology*
Schizophrenia / therapy
Severity of Illness Index
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation* / adverse effects

Substances

Antipsychotic Agents

Grants and funding

PALA Grant/U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/International