Impact of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on the Visual Sustain Attention of ADHD Student-Athletes

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is common in the general and sports population. The prime objective of the current study was to compare the impact of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on the visual sustained attention of ADHD student-athletes.

In this study, among the 79 children diagnosed with ADHD, 45 students were randomly selected and divided into three 15-person Sham, control, and experimental groups. All subjects in the Sham and experimental groups received ten sessions of two different types of anodal and sham stimulations over the F3 area and cathode excitation over the Supraorbital (SO) area with 1 mA current for 15 minutes. After ten sessions, each group was re-examined. After 40 days, a follow-up test was performed according to the post-test using the Continuous Performance Test, Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance, and Paired Sample t-test was used to test statistical hypotheses (p≤0.05).

The results revealed that applying tDCS is effective in improving the visual sustained attention of ADHD student-athletes.

The findings of the study indicated that the protocol of applying 1 mA tDCS can improve the visual sustained attention of ADHD student-athletes.