Effect of Different Models of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Risky Decision-Making in Sports Referees

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of different models of transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on risky decision-making in male team sports referees. Twenty four Football, Futsal, Vollyball, Basketball, and Hanbal referees aged 19-38 at level 3 to national level with 2-18 years of experience voluntarily took part in this study. After the familiarization session, in a double-blind, sham-controlled crossover design, each subject visited the laboratory on three different occasions separated by at least 72 hours in between and was exposed to anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation types over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC). Before and after each stimulation type, Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Impulsivity (IMP) Go/No Go psychological tasks were performed. The difference between the mean values of the variables (Delta) at pre and post-intervention were calculated and used for statistical analyses. The results showed that delta IGT was significantly higher in Anodal and Cathodal stimulation compared to sham stimulation (p=0.003, p=0.01, respectively). On the other hand, a significantly higher delta IMP was observed in anodal and sham stimulation in comparison with cathodal stimulation (p=0.0001, p=0.002, respectively). As a novel finding, these results indicated the positive effects of anodal stimulations over the right DLPFC in factors associated with risky decision-making in male sports referees. To conclude, these results pave the path for using tDCS as a possible strategy to boost risky decision-making in male sport referees. However, more research is needed to ascertain this conjecture.