Improving Awareness for Spatial Neglect With tDCS

Sponsor
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Study ID
NCT04845529
Status
Not Yet Recruiting

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Conditions

  • Anosognosia
  • Neglect, Hemispatial
  • Stroke

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
20 Years - 85 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Not accepted

Interventions

  • transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) — DEVICE
    We will apply tDCS to the patients' brains for 20 minutes at the intensity of 1.5mA. Each patient will undergo the three sessions (separated by at least 24h to minimize carry-over effects), in a pseudo-randomized order across patients.

Study Details

Brain-damaged patients can show severe neurological and cognitive deficits, and yet often remain strikingly unaware of these symptoms: this condition is called anosognosia. The aim of this study is to improve awareness in right-brain-damaged patients with Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) following stroke using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). tDCS is a neuromodulatory technique that delivers low-intensity current to the brain facilitating (anodal tDCS) or inhibiting (cathodal tDCS) spontaneous neuronal activity. tDCS does not induce activity in resting neuronal networks, but modulates spontaneous neuronal activity: consequently, the amount and direction of effects critically depend on the previous state of the neural structures. We will test USN patients showing anosognosia for neglect symptoms. Different brain areas will be stimulated, to target explicit and implicit components of anosognosia, including parietal and frontal brain regions.

Key Dates

First listed
Apr 15, 2021
Start date
Dec 31, 2026
Status verified
May 2025
Primary completion
Jan 31, 2027
Completion
Jan 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
12 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: 1 tDCS Parietal
    Anodal tDCS applied to the right inferior parietal cortex
  • Experimental: 2 tDCS Frontal
    Anodal tDCS applied to the medial frontal cortex
  • Sham Comparator: 3 Sham
    Sham tDCS (control, no stimulation delivered). Following a standard sham protocol, in this condition the tDCS will be active the first 30seconds and the last 30seconds of the session, but silent during the other 19minutes

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in self-rating about anosognosia for USN [ Time Frame: from Baseline to 30 minutes ]

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