Clinical trial NCT03880227: Improving Visual Attention in Schizophrenia
Official title: Improving Visual Attention to Social Stimuli in Individuals With Schizophrenia
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Schizophrenia
Schizoaffective Disorder
Lead sponsor: The University of Texas at Dallas
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-03-19
Enrollment: 81
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 60
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: Participants will be paired based on key demographic criteria and assigned to one of two stimulation locations (rTPJ or dmPFC), participants will then complete active and sham stimulation sessions in a randomized, counterbalanced order approximately one week apart.
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: This study investigates whether visual attention can be improved in individuals with schizophrenia by stimulating the brain via transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS).

Detailed description: Individuals with schizophrenia tend to display abnormal visual attention when performing visual tasks, typically spending less time on salient features of the stimuli (e.g. core facial features or body movement in social tasks), and instead focusing on idiosyncratic features of an image or video. Poor visual attention in schizophrenia has been directly linked to poorer social cognitive performance (e.g. recognizing emotional expressions or social cues) which can impact an individual's day to day functioning.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a form of noninvasive neurostimulation which has been proposed as a therapeutic procedure in numerous psychiatric disorders. TDCS in schizophrenia has been demonstrated to improve a wide range of cognitive processes, and in healthy adults, tDCS has been demonstrated to improve aspects of social cognition. TDCS thus appears to be a promising therapeutic technique that may be useful for improving visual attention in patients with schizophrenia, and potentially impact social cognitive performance via an underlying mechanism tying the two. This study will compare visual performance in individuals with schizophrenia across two conditions: active anodal tDCS and sham tDCS, while also comparing between brain stimulation sites: rTPJ and dmPFC.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* DSM-IV-TR or DSM-5 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and clinically stable (i.e. no hospitalizations) for at least 8 weeks prior to informed consent and be on a stable medication regimen for at least 6 weeks with no dose changes for a minimum of 2 weeks prior to informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

* The presence or history of a pervasive developmental disorder or mental retardation as defined by a premorbid IQ \< 70
* Presence or history of medical or neurological disorders in which neural stimulation would be contraindicated (e.g. presence of epilepsy or history of seizures)
* Presence of sensory limitations, including visual or hearing impairments that interfere with assessment
* History of electroconvulsive therapy
* Not proficient in English
* Presence of substance abuse in the past one month or dependence not in remission in the past six months

Primary outcomes:
measure: Visual Attention to Static Faces
timeFrame: Assessment will be completed 30 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
measure: Visual Attention to Dynamic Actor
timeFrame: Assessment will be completed 30 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
measure: Visual Attention to Dynamic Social Scenes
timeFrame: Assessment will be completed 30 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Fixation Stabilization
timeFrame: Assessment will be completed 30 minutes after completion of the active/sham stimulation
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Richardson
country: United States
facility: The University of Texas at Dallas
state: Texas
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Texas at Dallas
name: Hans S Klein, MS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: