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Prefrontal cortex stimulation does not affect emotional bias, but may slow emotion identification

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posted on 2023-06-09, 04:57 authored by Camilla L Nord, Sophie ForsterSophie Forster, D. Chamith Halahakoon, Ian S Penton-Voak, Marcus R Munafò, Jonathan P Roiser
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has recently garnered attention as a putative depression treatment. However, the cognitive mechanisms by which it exerts an antidepressant effect are unclear: tDCS may directly alter ‘hot’ emotional processing biases, or alleviate depression through changes in ‘cold’ (non-emotional) cognitive function. Here, 75 healthy participants performed a facial emotion identification task during 20 minutes of anodal or sham tDCS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in a double-blind, within-subject crossover design. A subset of 31 participants additionally completed a task measuring attentional distraction during stimulation. Compared to sham stimulation, anodal tDCS of the left DLPFC resulted in an increase in response latency across all emotional conditions. Bayesian analysis showed definitively that tDCS exerted no emotion-dependent effect on behaviour. Thus, we demonstrate that anodal tDCS produces a general, rather than an emotion-specific, effect. We also report a preliminary finding in the subset of participants who completed the distractibility task: increased distractibility during active stimulation correlated significantly with the degree to which tDCS slowed emotion identification. Our results provide insight into the possible mechanisms by which DLPFC tDCS may treat symptoms of depression, suggesting that it may not alter emotional biases, but instead may affect ‘cold’ cognitive processes.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

ISSN

1749-5016

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Issue

5

Volume

12

Page range

839-847

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2017-01-27

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-07-03

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2017-01-27

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