Therapeutic Effects of Bilateral Anodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Prefrontal and Motor Cortical Areas in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Pilot Study.
Twenty-minute tDCS sessions over front and motor areas modestly improved sociability in autistic kids without side effects.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hadoush et al. (2020) tested a gentle brain buzz called tDCS. It sends a weak current through pads on the scalp.
Fifty kids with autism got either real or fake stimulation for 20 minutes a day. The pads sat over the front and motor parts of the brain.
After ten sessions, the team scored behavior with the ATEC checklist.
What they found
Kids who got real tDCS showed small but clear gains in sociability and behavior. No side effects were seen.
The sham group barely changed, so the boost is tied to the current, not just time.
How this fits with other research
Ellingsen et al. (2014) tried nasal oxytocin for the same social deficits and saw no benefit. The difference: oxytocin is chemical, tDCS is electrical, and the age range in R et al. was wider.
Facon et al. (2021) used real-time fMRI neurofeedback and also saw social gains. Both studies show that nudging the social brain can help, even with different tools.
EGranieri et al. (2020) meta-analysis says app-based social-skills training works as well as in-person. tDCS could pair with either format to boost outcomes.
Why it matters
You now have a safe, low-cost add-on that may lift sociability scores in kids who already receive ABA. Ask the prescribing doctor about tDCS before or after your regular session. Track ATEC sub-scales weekly to see if the extra buzz speeds up social gains.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Dysfunctional frontal cortical areas associated with clinical features are observed in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study attempted to identify any potential therapeutic effects of bilateral anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the left and right prefrontal and motor areas on the clinical characteristics of children with ASD. Fifty children with confirmed ASD medical diagnoses were divided equally and randomly into a tDCS treatment group and a control group. The tDCS treatment group underwent 10 sessions (20-min durations, five per week) of bilateral anodal tDCS stimulation applied simultaneously over the left and right prefrontal and motor areas, whereas the control group underwent the same procedures but with the use of sham tDCS stimulation. Total scores and sub-scores of autism treatment evaluation checklist (ATEC) (language and communication; sociability; sensory awareness; and behavioral, health, and physical conditions) were measured before and after the tDCS treatment sessions of both groups. There were significant decreases in total ATEC scores (P = 0.014), sociability sub-scores (P = 0.021), and behavioral, health, and physical condition sub-scores (P = 0.011) in the tDCS treatment group. No significant changes were observed in total ATEC scores and sub-scores in the control group. In conclusion, compared to the control group, bilateral anodal tDCS showed potential therapeutic effects on children with ASD in terms of improvements in sociability, behavior, health, and physical conditions with no reported side effects. Autism Res 2020, 13: 828-836. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Dysfunctional frontal cortical areas are associated with clinical features in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is found to be a safe, noninvasive method to stimulate cortical regions and thus have therapeutic effects on children with ASD. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1002/aur.2290