Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28775825›Full record

Trial reportMolecular autism2017

Balanced bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation enhances working memory in adults with high-functioning autism: a sham-controlled crossover study.

J Jason van Steenburgh, Mark Varvaris, David J Schretlen, Tracy D Vannorsdall, Barry Gordon

Registry-linked trialAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Molecular autism, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01602263 (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation), which is not on this map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT01602263 completednot on this map

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)and Cognitive Processing

TypeobservationalSponsorJohns Hopkins UniversityRan2009 to 2023Enrolled307ConditionsAphasia, Autism, SchizophreniaArmsTranscranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Does Ongoing Task Load Influence Prospective Remembering in Autism Spectrum Disorders?Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. The use of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques in autism spectrum disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2024
    Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Effects of Non-invasive Neurostimulation on Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2020
    Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

J Jason van SteenburghDepartment of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1629 Thames Street, Suite 350, Baltimore, MD 21231 USA.
Mark VarvarisDepartment of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1629 Thames Street, Suite 350, Baltimore, MD 21231 USA.
David J SchretlenDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287 USA.
Tracy D VannorsdallDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287 USA.
Barry GordonDepartment of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1629 Thames Street, Suite 350, Baltimore, MD 21231 USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundWorking memory (WM) often is impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Such impairment may underlie core deficits in cognition and social functioning. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to enhance WM in both healthy adults and clinical populations, but its efficacy in ASD is unknown. We predicted that bifrontal tDCS would improve WM performances of adults with high-functioning autism during active stimulation compared to sham stimulation and that such enhancement would generalize to an untrained task.

methodsTwelve adults with high-functioning ASD engaged in a battery of WM tasks that included backward spatial span, backward digit span, spatial

resultsCompared to sham stimulation, both left DLPFC anodal stimulation (

conclusionsIn adults with high-functioning ASD, active bifrontal tDCS given during WM tasks appears to improve performance. TDCS benefits also transferred to an untrained task completed shortly after stimulation. These results suggest that tDCS can improve WM task performance and could reduce some core deficits of autism.

trial registrationNCT01602263.

Indexed as

Memory, Short-TermTranscranial Direct Current StimulationAdultAgedAutistic DisorderCross-Over StudiesFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedAutismDorsolateral prefrontal cortexTranscranial direct current stimulationWorking memory

Identifiers

PMID28775825
PMCPMC5534041

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.