The Effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Working Memory in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest and posttest and retention with experimental and control groups. The research population consisted of children (age: 7-11 years old) in Urmia city in 2018. 16 children with DCD were selected as the sample with convenience sampling method and based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and then were randomly divided into two groups: experimental (n=8) and control (n=8). The experimental group received 10 sessions (each session 10 minutes) of tDCS on f4 and f3 brain zones with 0.75 mA circuitry. The control group received 10 sessions of sham circuitry for 20 seconds, then the circuity was cut off, but they were not informed of this sham circuity. The data of working memory were collected using N-BACK test. The analysis of variance with repeated measurements was used to test the research hypothesis (P=0.05). The results showed that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) had a significant effect on the enhancement of working memory and the effect would continue to the retention phase (P=0.05). This approach can be used to improve working memory in children with DCD.

Keywords

• developmental coordination disorder (dcd)
• enhancement of working memory
• n-back test
• transcranial direct current stimulation (tdcs)
• working memory