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Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

BACKGROUND: Attentional dysfunctions constitute core cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, but the precise underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain to be elucidated. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study, we applied, for the first time, a theoretically grounded modeling...

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Autores principales: Gögler, Nadine, Papazova, Irina, Oviedo-Salcedo, Tatiana, Filipova, Nina, Strube, Wolfgang, Funk, Johanna, Müller, Hermann J., Finke, Kathrin, Hasan, Alkomiet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5712554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29238310
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00259
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author Gögler, Nadine
Papazova, Irina
Oviedo-Salcedo, Tatiana
Filipova, Nina
Strube, Wolfgang
Funk, Johanna
Müller, Hermann J.
Finke, Kathrin
Hasan, Alkomiet
author_facet Gögler, Nadine
Papazova, Irina
Oviedo-Salcedo, Tatiana
Filipova, Nina
Strube, Wolfgang
Funk, Johanna
Müller, Hermann J.
Finke, Kathrin
Hasan, Alkomiet
author_sort Gögler, Nadine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Attentional dysfunctions constitute core cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, but the precise underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain to be elucidated. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study, we applied, for the first time, a theoretically grounded modeling approach based on Bundesen’s Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) to (i) identify specific visual attentional parameters affected in schizophrenia and (ii) assess, as a proof of concept, the potential of single-dose anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS; 20 min, 2 mA) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to modulate these attentional parameters. To that end, attentional parameters were measured before (baseline), immediately after, and 24 h after the tDCS intervention in 20 schizophrenia patients and 20 healthy controls. RESULTS: At baseline, analyses revealed significantly reduced visual processing speed and visual short-term memory storage capacity in schizophrenia. A significant stimulation condition × time point interaction in the schizophrenia patient group indicated improved processing speed at the follow-up session only in the sham condition (a practice effect), whereas performance remained stable across the three time points in patients receiving verum stimulation. In healthy controls, anodal tDCS did not result in a significant change in attentional performance. CONCLUSION: With regard to question (i) above, these findings are indicative of a processing speed and short-term memory deficit as primary sources of attentional deficits in schizophrenia. With regard to question (ii), the efficacy of single-dose anodal tDCS for improving (speed aspects of visual) cognition, it appears that prefrontal tDCS (at the settings used in the present study), rather than ameliorating the processing speed deficit in schizophrenia, actually may interfere with practice-dependent improvements in the rate of visual information uptake. Such potentially unexpected effects of tDCS ought to be taken into consideration when discussing its applicability in psychiatric populations. The study was registered at http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=DRKS00011665.
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spelling pubmed-57125542017-12-13 Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Gögler, Nadine Papazova, Irina Oviedo-Salcedo, Tatiana Filipova, Nina Strube, Wolfgang Funk, Johanna Müller, Hermann J. Finke, Kathrin Hasan, Alkomiet Front Psychiatry Psychiatry BACKGROUND: Attentional dysfunctions constitute core cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia, but the precise underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain to be elucidated. METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study, we applied, for the first time, a theoretically grounded modeling approach based on Bundesen’s Theory of Visual Attention (TVA) to (i) identify specific visual attentional parameters affected in schizophrenia and (ii) assess, as a proof of concept, the potential of single-dose anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS; 20 min, 2 mA) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to modulate these attentional parameters. To that end, attentional parameters were measured before (baseline), immediately after, and 24 h after the tDCS intervention in 20 schizophrenia patients and 20 healthy controls. RESULTS: At baseline, analyses revealed significantly reduced visual processing speed and visual short-term memory storage capacity in schizophrenia. A significant stimulation condition × time point interaction in the schizophrenia patient group indicated improved processing speed at the follow-up session only in the sham condition (a practice effect), whereas performance remained stable across the three time points in patients receiving verum stimulation. In healthy controls, anodal tDCS did not result in a significant change in attentional performance. CONCLUSION: With regard to question (i) above, these findings are indicative of a processing speed and short-term memory deficit as primary sources of attentional deficits in schizophrenia. With regard to question (ii), the efficacy of single-dose anodal tDCS for improving (speed aspects of visual) cognition, it appears that prefrontal tDCS (at the settings used in the present study), rather than ameliorating the processing speed deficit in schizophrenia, actually may interfere with practice-dependent improvements in the rate of visual information uptake. Such potentially unexpected effects of tDCS ought to be taken into consideration when discussing its applicability in psychiatric populations. The study was registered at http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=DRKS00011665. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5712554/ /pubmed/29238310 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00259 Text en Copyright © 2017 Gögler, Papazova, Oviedo-Salcedo, Filipova, Strube, Funk, Müller, Finke and Hasan. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Gögler, Nadine
Papazova, Irina
Oviedo-Salcedo, Tatiana
Filipova, Nina
Strube, Wolfgang
Funk, Johanna
Müller, Hermann J.
Finke, Kathrin
Hasan, Alkomiet
Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title_full Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title_fullStr Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title_full_unstemmed Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title_short Parameter-Based Evaluation of Attentional Impairments in Schizophrenia and Their Modulation by Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
title_sort parameter-based evaluation of attentional impairments in schizophrenia and their modulation by prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5712554/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29238310
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00259
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