NCT03055884

Investigating Accelerated Learning in Healthy Subjects

• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 0 (actual)
• Sponsor: The University of Texas at Dallas · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to accelerate learning and improve associative memory performance in healthy subjects, by (1) applying transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) during a verbal paired-associate learning task and by (2) optimizing the learning method with repeated retrieval practice.

Detailed description

Associative memory refers to remembering the association between two items, such as a face and a name or a word in English and the same word in another language. It is not only important for learning, but it is also one of the first aspects of memory performance that is impacted by aging and by Alzheimer׳s disease. For decades, neuroscientists have investigated associative learning and memory and ways to accelerate and enhance associative learning and memory. Transcranial Direct Current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive and painless electrical stimulation technique that has demonstrated to accelerate learning and improve memory in some studies. Previous research has also emphasized the importance of repeated retrieval practice as a way to accelerate learning and enhance associative memory performance. Therefore, this study will examine the effect of repeated retrieval practice on associative memory performance by using two versions of an associative memory task. To investigate whether it is possible to accelerate learning and improve associative memory using tDCS and repeated retrieval practice, the performance in a Verbal Paired-Associate memory task during the first visit and 1 week after will be compared for four study groups. The first group will get active tDCS during a version of the verbal paired-associate learning task with repeated retrieval practice. The second group will get active tDCS during a version of the verbal paired-associate learning task without repeated retrieval practice. The third group will get sham tDCS during a version of the verbal paired-associate learning task with repeated retrieval practice and the fourth group will get Sham tDCS during a version of the verbal paired-associate learning task without repeated retrieval practice.

Conditions

• Healthy Adults

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	tDCS	active tDCS versus sham tDCS
BEHAVIORAL	Verbal paired-associate learning task	with or without repeated retrieval practice

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-02-13
• Primary completion: 2020-04-22
• Completion: 2021-12-22
• First posted: 2017-02-16
• Last updated: 2022-01-26

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study