ArticleSchizophrenia research. Cognition2026
Working-memory effects of prefrontal tDCS across baseline cognitive-severity groups in schizophrenia: A secondary analysis of a randomized double-blind sham-controlled trial.
Article in Schizophrenia research. Cognition, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Cognitive impairment is common in schizophrenia and remains poorly responsive to pharmacological treatment. We examined working-memory change after prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) across baseline cognitive-severity groups and tested whether baseline severity modified response. Methods: This complete-case secondary analysis included 120 of 173 randomized participants (62 active tDCS, 58 sham) who completed the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery before and after 10 bifrontal tDCS sessions. K-means clustering of seven baseline domain T-scores identified cognitive-severity groups. Treatment effects were assessed using descriptive comparisons and adjusted mixed-effects models. Benjamini-Hochberg correction was applied jointly across 14 domain-by-group hypotheses, with Holm correction as a sensitivity analysis. To address circularity, groups were re-derived without baseline working memory, and moderation was tested using the time × treatment × group interaction. Results: The groups differed mainly in overall cognitive severity rather than profile shape. The active-versus-sham difference in working-memory change was 3.68 T-points (95% CI, 1.57-5.79) in the greater-impairment group and 2.59 T-points (95% CI, 0.90-4.28) in the less-severe-impairment group. Working memory survived joint false-discovery-rate correction in both groups, but Holm correction only in the greater-impairment group. No other domain survived joint correction. After reclustering without baseline working memory, the time × treatment × group interaction was not significant (estimate, 0.93 T-points; 95% CI, -1.71 to 3.56; Conclusions: Prefrontal tDCS showed a working-memory signal across both cognitive-severity groups, but baseline severity did not significantly modify response. The groups should be interpreted as positions along a cognitive-severity continuum rather than distinct profiles or subtypes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.