Brain Insights and Resolution of Youth Depression through Neurotechnology

Abstract

As per United Nations, the youth constitute 16% of total population globally whereas World Health Organization reported that one in every seven young individual suffers from depression. Among various tested therapeutic solutions for depression management, the efficacy of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is still unexplored specifically in young participants. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the cross hemispheric tDCS intervention with a smaller number of sessions in youth population by means of neurological, neuropsychological, and behavioural measures. A total of 50 young participants were recruited comprising of 25 healthy and 25 depressed individuals. The participants of depressed group were randomly assigned to active tDCS and sham tDCS sub groups and completed 150 min of training over 5 consecutive days. The active tDCS group received stimulation of 2 mA over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Unlike healthy individuals, depressed participants demonstrated reduced difference of brain activity between eyes opened and closed resting conditions which gets restored following the intervention in active group. Additionally, the tDCS intervention effectively modified the previously reduced alpha asymmetry observed in depressed participants compared to healthy individuals. These neurological outcomes may also be supported with enhanced neuropsychological score of depression (t = 5.47, P < .01) in active group. The attention score (t = 5.14, P < .01) and reaction time (t = 2.22, P = .02) evaluated through behavioural measure of Stroop task were also significantly improved in active group post tDCS intervention. The reported outcomes of the study highlighted the ability of tDCS for prompt and efficient youth depression management.