Using Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation to Improve Executive Function in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

22q11.2 is the neurogenetic disorder with the highest genetic risk of schizophrenia and early diagnosis allows subjects to be followed from early childhood. Not only does atypical cognitive development precede the emergence of the first psychotic symptoms, but it predicts their later severity and further cognitive decline. Even in subjects which premorbid cognitive functioning is already low due to neurogenetic syndromes, further decline in cognitive abilities indicates an increased risk for the emergence of psychotic symptoms. psychotic symptoms. Thus, early intervention targeting cognition could potentially mitigate the burden of the disease. Individuals carrying the 22q11.2 microdeletion have a distinctive cognitive profile characterized by a dissociation between verbal and visual-spatial memory capacities, supporting a specific deficit in the processing of visuo-spatial information. Memory deficits are therefore a specific weakness of this population. For this reason, we designed a non-invasive brain stimulation protocol to improve visual working memory (WM) in adolescents and young adults with 22q11DS using individual parameters to account for age individual parameters to account for participant age and anatomical variability.