The study will be randomized, double-blind, within subject crossover design. It will involve a group of 30-40 children and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We may recruit up to 60 subjects. Diagnosis of ASD will be confirmed with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) or Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2) by a research-reliable clinician. Each participant will undergo a sham condition and a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) condition, the order of sham and tDCS conditions will be randomly assigned to each participant during baseline testing. Sham refers to participants only receiving 1 milliamp of tDCS stimulation for 1 minute, and tDCS stimulation refers to 20 minutes of tDCS stimulation. The study involves an initial screening visit followed by two sessions with three months between each session period. Each session includes the following: pre-testing and imaging, tDCS 3-week session, post-testing and imaging. Participants will complete an initial screening to confirm clinical diagnosis of ASD, determine baseline cognitive functioning, and complete a practice Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) session. At pre-testing, they will complete a psychometric battery, as well as undergo safety screening, and an MRI and/or MEG. Each 3-week tDCS sessions will be randomized, and each participant will undergo three weeks of sham stimulation and three weeks of 20-minute tDCS stimulation. Neither the researchers nor the participants will know which group they are assigned during each three-week session.
The purpose of this research study is to investigate the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on some of the challenges faced by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).