The aim of this study is to investigate whether a high definition tDCS-accompanied intensive cognitive training of working memory leads to performance improvement in women with post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment after breast cancer treatment.
Patients who have undergone chemotherapy, may develop post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment (PCCI), which may occur in several cognitive domains and persist for many years. These declines in cognitive functions can lead to psychological distress and affect overall patients' quality of life. The goal of the present study is to assess behavioral effects of a multi-session cognitive training combined with high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in women with PCCI. First studies have shown positive effects of cognitive training on trained and untrained functions and the subjective perception of stress, however the effects are small and transfer effects are inconsistent. A promising approach to elongate and increase the effects of cognitive training is to combine the training with tDCS. Therefore, in this study women with PCCI will participate in a three-week cognitive training with concurrent online high-definition tDCS application. Cognitive performance (primary), as well as Quality of Life scores and Sleep data will be examined before, during and after the intervention. In order to draw conclusions about the effect of tDCS in addition to cognitive training, a control group, receiving sham stimulation during training, will be assessed. A Follow-up session to assess long-term effects is planned four weeks after the post assessment. The results of the study will offer valuable insights into efficacy of combined tDCS and cognitive training intervention in women with PCCI in order to establish its potential to induce improvements in cognitive functions, and to beneficially affect patient-reported outcome measures.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
52
Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), 9 sessions with 20 minutes stimulation each (2 mA).
Sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), 9 sessions with 30 sec stimulation each (2 mA) to ensure blinding of participants.
Intensive cognitive training of a letter memory updating task, 9 sessions for approximately 20 min
University Medicine Greifswald
Greifswald, Germany
RECRUITINGWorking memory performance at post-assessment
Performance in a near transfer task (n-back) under anodal tDCS compared to sham condition; operationalized by % correct responses in the n-back task
Time frame: 3 weeks
Working memory performance at follow-up assessment
Performance in a near transfer task (n-back) under anodal tDCS compared to sham condition; operationalized by % correct responses in the n-back task
Time frame: 4 weeks after training
Working memory training performance (Letter Updating Task) at post-assessment
Performance in primary memory training task (Letter Updating Task) at post-assessment, operationalized by number of correctly recalled lists in the letter updating task
Time frame: 3 weeks
Working memory training performance (Letter Updating Task) at follow-up assessment
Performance in primary memory training task (Letter Updating Task) at follow-up assessment, operationalized by number of correctly recalled lists in the letter updating task
Time frame: 4 weeks after training
Quality of Life at post-assessment
PROMIS score for HRQoL (PROPr score) and scores of subscales (e.g. cognitive function)
Time frame: 3 weeks
Quality of Life at follow-up assessment
PROMIS score for HRQoL (PROPr score) and scores of subscales (e.g. cognitive function)
Time frame: 4 weeks after training
Visuo-spatial performance at post-assessment
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Visuo-spatial performance at post-assessment operationalized by number of correctly recalled items in the VR task.
Time frame: 3 weeks
Visuo-spatial performance at follow-up assessment
Visuo-spatial performance at follow-up assessment operationalized by number of correctly recalled items in the VR task.
Time frame: 3 weeks