Table 1.

Clinical studies of tDCS in dementia.

Study	Design	n	Age (years)	Disease diagnosis	MMSE	Medication	Parameters	Brain target	Effect
ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Boggio et al. (2009)	Cross over, sham controlled	10	79 ± 9	NINCDS, ADRADA	17 ± 5	AChEIs + others	Anodal/sham, 2 mA, 30 min	Left DLPFC	Improved visual recognition memory after atDCS
Boggio et al. (2011)	Sham controlled	15	78 ± 7, 81 ± 10	Adas-Cog, VRT, VAT, ADAS	21 ± 3, 19 ± 3	No data	Anodal, sham 2 mA, 30 min	TC bilateral	Improved visual recognition memory after atDCS
Ferrucci et al. (2008a)	Cross over, sham controlled	10	75 ± 7	DSM-IV, NINCDS- ADRADA	23 ± 2	AchEI	Anodal/cathodal/sham, 1.5 mA, 15 min	Left/right TPC	Accuracy of the word-recognition memory increased after atDCS
FRONTOTEMPORAL DEMENTIA
Huey et al. (2007)	Double-blind, sham controlled	10	61 (46−80)	Criteria Lund/Manchester 1994 MDRS	No data	AChEI + memantine	Active/sham, 2 mA, 20 min	FC	No improvement in verbal fluency after active tDCS

AChEI, acetylcholine esterase inhibitors; Adas-Cog, Alzheimer’s disease assessment scale-cognitive sub scale; ADAS, Alzheimer’s disease assessment scale; DLPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DSM- IV, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV); FC, frontal cortex; MDRS, Mattis Dementia Rating Scale; MMSE, Mini Mental State Examination; NINCDS-ADRADA, National Institute of Neurological Communicative Disorders and Stroke-Alzheimer disease and Related Disorders Association; TC, temporal cortex; TPC, temporoparietal cortex; VAT, visual attention task; VRT, visual recognition task.