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Published on: September 26, 2025
Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Prefrontal Inhibition in Schizophrenia Patients with Persistent
Aditi Subramaniam1, Sri Mahavir Agarwal1, Sunil Kalmady1
1Department of Psychiatry, The Schizophrenia Clinic, Translational Psychiatry Laboratory, Neurobiology Research Centre, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improved prefrontal cortex inhibitory control in schizophrenia patients. This enhancement led to fewer errors in the antisaccade task and reduced auditory hallucinations (AHs) severity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Neuromodulation
Background:
- Schizophrenia is linked to deficient prefrontal cortex inhibitory control.
- Antisaccade task performance reflects prefrontal inhibitory function and is impaired in schizophrenia patients.
- Auditory hallucinations (AHs) are a key symptom associated with schizophrenia's pathogenesis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on antisaccade task performance in individuals with schizophrenia.
- To assess the potential of tDCS as a therapeutic intervention for improving cognitive deficits and symptoms in schizophrenia.
Main Methods:
- The study involved 13 schizophrenia patients.
- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was applied to participants.
- Antisaccade task performance was measured before and after tDCS.
Main Results:
- tDCS significantly reduced the percentage of errors in the antisaccade task (P = 0.005).
- A significant improvement was observed in final eye position gain (P = 0.042).
- tDCS also led to a significant reduction in the severity of auditory hallucinations (AHs) (P = 0.003).
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest that tDCS can enhance prefrontal inhibitory control in schizophrenia.
- Improvements in antisaccade performance may be mechanistically linked to the reduction in AH severity.
- tDCS shows promise as a non-invasive neuromodulation technique for schizophrenia.
