# Can tDCS accelerate and sustain the cognitive benefits of targeted cognitive training in schizophrenia

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2020 · $166,538

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Patients suffering from schizophrenia and related disorders experience cognitive disruptions associated with
poor functional outcomes. It is therefore critical to achieve the long-term goal of developing efficacious and
mechanistically informed treatments to improve cognition in this population. Targeted cognitive training (TCT)
has shown promise for improving cognition in patients with schizophrenia, but individual differences in behavioral
and neural target engagement limit the efficiency and sustainability of this treatment. TCT enhances prefrontal
oscillatory gamma that coincides with improved cognition in patients with schizophrenia. Similar increases in
prefrontal gamma and cognitive performance in schizophrenia have been demonstrated using transcranial direct
current stimulation (tDCS). The current study will determine whether cognitive enhancement in schizophrenia
can be achieved more efficiently by combining tDCS that enhances neural oscillatory rhythms with TCT that
harnesses gamma oscillatory plasticity in prefronto-temporal systems. Using an experimental medicine
framework, this study will test the central hypothesis that TCT+tDCS will—via the mechanism of increased
prefrontal oscillatory gamma—accelerate and sustain the behavioral effects of cognitive training over
TCT+Sham. This study will pursue 3 specific aims: 1) Determine whether TCT+tDCS more rapidly improves
cognition compared to TCT+Sham; 2) examine the relationship between change in cognition and change in
prefrontal oscillatory gamma following TCT+tDCS; and 3) determine whether cognitive and functional benefits
following TCT+tDCS are sustained after a 3-month follow-up. An exploratory aim will examine cross-frequency
coupling (CFC) between theta and gamma oscillatory signals and determine whether changes in CFC
corresponds to improved cognition. To carry out these aims, patients with schizophrenia will be randomized to
undergo either 20 hours of TCT+tDCS or TCT+Sham. Participants will be assessed on measures of cognition,
symptoms, and functioning at baseline, after 10 hours of training, after 20 of training, and at a 3-month follow-
up. To measure changes in oscillatory gamma, participants will undergo task/resting EEG at baseline, after 10
hours, and after 20 hours. The approach is innovative as it investigates the combined effects of a behavioral
intervention and neuromodulation, uses an experimental medicine framework to probe neural target
engagement, and relies on novel computational and neural analyses. The proposed research is significant
because it will establish prefrontal gamma as a treatment target in schizophrenia, and lay the groundwork for
personalized treatments that could be deployed in a clinical setting. The outlined proposal will also facilitate the
candidate’s training goals: 1) Administration of tDCS; 2) Administration and analysis of EEG; 3) learning
computational psychiatry methods. Completion of these goals will establish th...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9886275
- **Project number:** 5K01MH117451-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Ian Spicer Ramsay
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $166,538
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-05 → 2024-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9886275

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9886275, Can tDCS accelerate and sustain the cognitive benefits of targeted cognitive training in schizophrenia (5K01MH117451-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9886275. Licensed CC0.

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