Effective of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on reaction time and risky Decision-Making in people with Depression

The impairment in Cognitive functions is common symptoms of Depression. The purpose of this research is investigation of the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on risky Decision-Making and reaction times (RT) in patients with Depression.

Thirty university students with depressive symptoms who were referred to the Counseling Center of Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University were selected and randomly divided into two groups : experimental and control groups (n=15 per group). The experimental group received anodal-tDCS stimulation over the left DLPFC for two weeks, 5 days a week and each session for 20 minutes. Risky decision making and reaction time were assessed by Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) and reaction timer apparatus, respectively. The obtained data were analyzed using covariance analysis and paired t-test.

The Results showed that the reaction times of both hands and feet was significantly faster in experimental group than sham group (p <0.05). Moreover, adjusted mean number of pumps (AMP) was lower in the experimental group than in the control group, during the BART task.

according to our result, anodal tDCS stimulation reduced reaction time and decreased risk-taking behaviors.Therefore,transcranial electrical stimulation can be usedas a non-pharmacological and safe intervention to improve cognitive impairment to enhance the cognitive functions in people with depression.