NCT03305328

Assessing the Clinical Utility of tACS

Assessing the Clinical Utility of tACS in the Treatment of Anxious Arousal and Sensory Sensitivity

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 38 (actual)
• Sponsor: Florida State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The present study seeks to evaluate the clinical utility of repeated transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) by assessing long-term, lasting changes in oscillatory activity and subsequent changes in related behavioral processes of anxious arousal and sensory sensitivity. To date, only transient effects of tACS have been reported, lasting no longer than 30 to 70 minutes. In order to be truly impactful within a clinical setting, however, evidence for long-term effects of tACS is needed.

Detailed description

Recent years have witnessed increasing recognition of "oscillopathies", neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by aberrations in the neural oscillations that orchestrate various mental activities. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) provides an effective way to directly modulate these oscillations in a non-invasive and frequency-specific manner, offering groundbreaking insights into the workings of the brain and, importantly, the development of novel treatments for these oscillopathies. However, evidence is lacking for the ability of tACS to induce long-term neural plasticity and lasting behavioral changes, which is critical for establishing the clinical utility of this novel intervention. Here, we are administering 30 minutes of alpha-frequency tACS over occipitoparietal sites for four consecutive days to evaluate both transient and long-term changes in alpha oscillatory power and long-range, directed oscillatory connectivity. As both anxious arousal and sensory sensitivity are highly related to alpha oscillations, as well as numerous neuropsychiatric disorders, changes in these behavioral outcomes were subsequently evaluated to assess clinically-relevant outcomes of the repeated tACS protocol.

Conditions

• Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms
• Sensory Disorders
• Hypervigilance
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation	Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation passes a weak, 2 mA sinusoidal current through the scalp to the cortex at a specified frequency. Previous evidence suggests this exogenous sinusoidal stimulation interacts with the endogenous, cortical sinusoidal oscillatory activity, resulting in modulations of cortical oscillations. The intervention is non-invasive and virtually painless with no lasting adverse side-effects.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-07-29
• Primary completion: 2017-03-31
• Completion: 2017-03-31
• First posted: 2017-10-09
• Last updated: 2017-10-09