Modulating Human Cortical Plasticity With Transcranial Electrical Stimulation
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03114488. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Experience dependent plasticity is a fundamental property of the brain. It allows neural systems to adapt in response to environmental input and subserves the vital functions of learning and memory. Deficits in plasticity are also thought play a causal role in the pathophysiology of several psychiatric disorders, specifically schizophrenia (SZ). Treatments that can probe or even enhance plasticity have potential to be of great clinical and research value. Non-invasive neuromodulation via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a promising method for modulating neural plasticity. tDCS delivers low-intensity direct current to cortical areas, thereby facilitating or inhibiting neural activity in a polarity specific manner. Due to its low cost and safety, tDCS has been employed in a wide variety of studies, but much remains unknown regarding its mechanism of action in humans. Experiments carried out in animal and tissue models indicate that tDCS modulates synaptic plasticity mechanisms of long term potentiation and depression (LTP/D), however, these findings have never been translated to human subjects, limiting the practical utility of the research. Recently developed electroencephalographic (EEG) based measures now allow the interrogation of synaptic plasticity non-invasively in humans, making it possible to explore the effects of tDCS on human brain plasticity.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03114488
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 41 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 50 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Nov 30, 2017
- Primary completion
- Oct 4, 2018
- Completion
- Oct 4, 2018
- Last update posted
- Feb 9, 2020
2017 – 2018
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kelvin O. Lim | Minneapolis | Minnesota | 55414 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03114488, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Feb 9, 2020 · Synced Sep 27, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03114488 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.