Investigaçăo sobre o impacto da estimulaçăo transcraniana por corrente contínua em tarefa de resoluçăo temporal por meio da prova RGDT - Random Gap Detection Test

• Ano de defesa: 2009
• Autor(a) principal: Ladeira, Andrea
• Orientador(a): Boggio, Paulo Sérgio
• Banca de defesa: Capovilla, Alessandra Gotuzo Seabra , Santos, Teresa Maria Momensohn dos
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Distúrbios do Desenvolvimento
• Departamento: Psicologia
• País: BR
• Palavras-chave em Português: estimulação transcraniana por corrente contínua; audição; processamento auditivo central
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCs); hearing; central auditory processing (CAP)
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/22630

The Central Auditory Processing Disorders are the deficiency of one or more hearing processes and mechanisms or the deficiency of major dysfunctions. Considering that new therapeutic and/or diagnostic approaches should be investigated, recent studies have shown that non invasive cerebral stimulation tools are efficient in the modulation of brain activity in a safe and painless way. One of these techniques is the Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCs). TDCs studies have shown that this technique is able to modulate cortical excitability on visual and motor areas and it is also capable to interfere in task performance involving cognitive functions on pre-frontal cortex such as operational memory and decision making. The aim of this study was the investigation of the possible effects of TDCs on primary auditory cortex, on temporal resolution tasks, using RGDT (Random Gap Detection Test). Eleven healthy volunteers received anodal, cathodal bilateral or sham ETCC in alternate days (i=2mA) and RGDT test was carried out before and during stimulation. It has been observed a significant effect for the frequencies of 4000Hz, Averages of Frequencies and Clicks, with an increase in the capacity of temporal discrimination in anodal stimulation and reduction in cathodal stimulation conditions. This is the first study showing that the ETCC of low intensity is capable of modulating the activity of primary auditory cortex resulting in positive or negative impact in the performance in task of temporal resolution according to the applied polarity (anodal or cathodal, respectively). Not only is the impact of these results in the demonstration of the TDCs as an important tool of investigation in cognitive neuroscience, but also in its use as an intervention tool. New studies will be necessary to investigate the impact of the TDCs in patients with alterations of the central auditory processing.