The effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tPCS) on the neuropsychology of social functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder

The aim was to investigate effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tPCS) on the neuropsychology of social functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder. It was expected that children with ASD randomly assigned to the experimental tPCS condition would show improvements in the neuropsychology of social functioning compared to those in the sham group. This study was a multicenter, double-blind, sham-controlled, randomized trial conducted at eight center for autism in Mecca, KSA. A total of 60 participants (30 in the tPCS group and 30 in the sham group) completed 10 treatment sessions and were included in the analysis. Post-intervention, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare primary and secondary outcomes between the intervention and sham groups. As hypothesized the delivered tPCS had a pre-to-post intervention effect on the neuropsychology of social functioning in children with ASD. Specifically, children with ASD randomly assigned to the experimental tPCS condition showed improvements in the neuropsychology of social functioning compared to those in the sham group. Those children did not have significant changes in scores from pre-to-post intervention time points.