The Effects of HD-tDCS on Cognitive Bias Among Individuals With Social Anxiety Symptoms

NCT ID: NCT07099521

Last Updated: 2025-12-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 74 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-05-15
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-24

Brief Summary

To examine the offline effects of high-definition tDCS (HD-tDCS) on attention, interpretation and memory biases in youth with social anxiety.

Detailed Description

In current study, we adopted a comparative intervention study with randomized controlled in which we delivered multiple courses of offline anodal HD-tDCS over the left DLPFC. The aim of this study was to explore the offline impact of HD-tDCS on cognitive bias (including attention, interpretation and memory bias) among youth with social anxiety symptoms. In addition, the researchers sought to further investigate the impact of tDCS stimulation on social anxiety. We hypothesized that anodal tDCS would activates the left DLPFC to facilitate cognitive control of threat-related information among youth with social anxiety, thereby reducing threat attention, interpretation and memory bias, and even improving social anxiety symptoms.

Conditions

Social Anxiety Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

tDCS group

Participants underwent 10 sessions of anodal (2mA, 20 minutes) HD-tDCS over 5 days targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Active High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Participants completed 10 sessions of anodal HD-tDCS stimulation over 5 consecutive days (two 20-minute sessions per day, with a 3-hour interval between sessions). Stimulation was delivered using an HD-tES device (Soterix Medical, Inc, Woodbridge, NJ, USA), targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal context (DLPFC). In the active HD-tDCS condition, current was ramped up to 2mA over 30 seconds, maintained for 20 minutes, then ramped down to 0mA at the end.

Sham group

Participants underwent 10 sessions of sham HD-tDCS over 5 days targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

Group Type: SHAM_COMPARATOR

Sham high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Participants completed 10 sessions of sham HD-tDCS stimulation over 5 consecutive days (two 20-minute sessions per day, with a 3-hour interval between sessions). Stimulation was delivered using an HD-tES device (Soterix Medical, Inc, Woodbridge, NJ, USA), targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal context (DLPFC). In the sham condition, the current was ramped up to 2mA within the first and last 30 seconds to mimic the sensation of stimulation, but then ramped down, with no current maintained at other times.

Interventions

Active High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation

Participants completed 10 sessions of anodal HD-tDCS stimulation over 5 consecutive days (two 20-minute sessions per day, with a 3-hour interval between sessions). Stimulation was delivered using an HD-tES device (Soterix Medical, Inc, Woodbridge, NJ, USA), targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal context (DLPFC). In the active HD-tDCS condition, current was ramped up to 2mA over 30 seconds, maintained for 20 minutes, then ramped down to 0mA at the end.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Sham high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation

Participants completed 10 sessions of sham HD-tDCS stimulation over 5 consecutive days (two 20-minute sessions per day, with a 3-hour interval between sessions). Stimulation was delivered using an HD-tES device (Soterix Medical, Inc, Woodbridge, NJ, USA), targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal context (DLPFC). In the sham condition, the current was ramped up to 2mA within the first and last 30 seconds to mimic the sensation of stimulation, but then ramped down, with no current maintained at other times.

Intervention Type: DEVICE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18 -24 years old
• No history of major organic brain diseases or mental disorders, and currently not taking hormone or mental disorder drugs, with no drug or alcohol dependence;
• No experience of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in the past six months;
• Participants are willing to participate and fill out the informed consent form;
• The score of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is less than 5 points;
• The score of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) is greater than or equal to 55 points

Exclusion Criteria

• any psychiatric disorders;
• current or past diseases or injuries related to the brain;
• medical pumps, pacemakers and cochlear implants in the body;
• current pharmacological or mental treatments;
• tDCS or TMS experiences over past year were also excluded.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 24 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

South China Normal University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Yi Yu

Primary Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Yi Yu

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

South China Normal University

Yuanyuan Wang

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

South China Normal University

Locations

School of Psychology, South China Normal University

Guangzhou, , China

Countries

China

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Document Type: Informed Consent Form

View Document

Other Identifiers

SCNU-PSY-2024-185

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id