There is currently little symptomatic therapy for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and nothing effective for individuals with Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). However, neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has the potential to be a clinically effective therapy for both AD and FTD. The challenge now is to specify the parameters and conditions under which tDCS is most effective to transition from the laboratory to clinical medicine. tDCS studies typically report significant group effects despite the variability demonstrated among participants, with some showing clear, meaningful improvement, while others only show statistical improvement or none at all. These variable results may be related to the conventional stimulation intensity level of 2mA. The investigators predict that administering tDCS at 4.0 mA, a more significant number of participants would show a meaningful response, and those who improve at 2mA may improve even more from 4.0mA due to having a larger electric field produced. The investigators aim to test this hypothesis in people with Alzheimer's Disease.
Mild to Moderate AD
Score between 18 and 25 on the MoCA
Able to do the N-Back task during the initial screening
No history of stroke or TBI
No shunts or metal in the body
No history of significant heart disease, alcoholism and drug use
Crossover
tDCS and Cognitive Training
Other interventionParticipants will receive mild stimulation or no stimulation along with cognitive training
N-Back
The primary outcome measure will be change on an N-Back Task, both a trained version and an untrained version. This change will be measured in terms of the average response time
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Baycrest
Lead sponsor
BrightFocus Foundation
Collaborator
