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Blinding is compromised for transcranial direct current stimulation at 1 mA for 20 minutes in young healthy adults
- Zsolt Turi
- Gábor Csifcsák
- Nya Mehnwolo Boayue
- Per Aslaksen
- Andrea Antal
- Walter Paulus
- Josephine Groot
- Guy Hawkins
- Birte Forstmann
- Alexander Opitz
- Axel Thielscher
- Matthias Mittner
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Description: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation method that is frequently used to study cortical excitability changes and their impact on cognitive functions in humans. While most stimulators are capable of operating in double-blind mode, the amount of discomfort experienced during tDCS may break blinding. Therefore, specifically designed sham stimulation protocols are being used. The "fade-in, short-stimulation, fade-out" (FSF) protocol has been used in hundreds of studies and is commonly believed to be indistinguishable from real stimulation applied at 1 mA for 20 minutes. We analyzed subjective reports of 192 volunteers, who either received real tDCS (n=96) or FSF tDCS (n=96). Participants reported more discomfort for real tDCS and correctly guessed the condition above chance-level. These findings indicate that FSF does not ensure complete blinding and that better active sham protocols are needed.
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