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Effects of tDCS on Cognitive Flexibility and EEG Oscillations in Orthorexia Nervosa

NCT07141979 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 48

Last updated 2026-04-01

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON); is a condition characterized by individuals being overly focused on healthy eating habits, constantly checking and classifying the foods they will consume. ON has not yet been clinically defined as an eating disorder or in a different category, and has not been included in DSM-5. Cognitive flexibility can be defined as a person's ability to quickly change their thinking and behaviors to adapt to different situations and changing conditions. It has been reported that cognitive flexibility skills are impaired in ON. There is evidence that tDCS, a neuromodulation method, increases cognitive flexibility skills. On the other hand, although there are EEG studies on eating disorders, there is no EEG study directly studying ON, and there is no information on the EEG profiles of individuals with high ON scores. For this reason, EEG studies on eating disorders and obsessive behaviors are generally generalized to orthorexia nervosa and are interpreted. This study aims to compare the EEG oscillations and cognitive flexibility skills of individuals with high ON scores with a control group and to examine the effects of anodal tDCS application on these two variables. For this purpose, a total of 48 individuals, 24 healthy and 24 high ON scores, will be included in the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to tDCS experimental and control groups. Therefore, 48 participants will be divided into 4 different subgroups of 12 people each. Data collection tools will be Informed Consent Form, Demographic Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Orthorexia Nervosa Test (TON-17), Cognitive flexibility task. First, participants will be subjected to a cognitive flexibility task by taking simultaneous EEG recordings, then tDCS stimulation will be initiated (active or sham) and after stimulation, a cognitive flexibility task will be performed by taking simultaneous EEG recordings again. EEG analyses will be performed using the Brain-Vision Analyzer program. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance (within-group and between-groups) will be used in statistical analyses.

Conditions

  • Orthorexia Nervosa

Interventions

DEVICE

Active tDCS

20 min, 2 milliampere (mA), Anodal tDCS in left DLPFC

DEVICE

Sham tDCS

20 min, left DLPFC Sham tDCS

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Istanbul Medipol University Hospital

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
40 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-11-01
Primary Completion
2027-01-31
Completion
2027-07-31

Countries

  • Turkey (Türkiye)

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT07141979 on ClinicalTrials.gov