Influence of tDCS on emotional and attentional information processing


Sutcubasi B., Kucuk Z., Tarman Z., Metin B., Metin E., Sari B.

BRAIN STIMULATION, cilt.12, sa.2, ss.499, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Özet
  • Cilt numarası: 12 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2019
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.brs.2018.12.634
  • Dergi Adı: BRAIN STIMULATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.499
  • Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is the crucial part of the brain, which is responsible for emotional and attentional processes. Previous studies mainly showed that stimulating left dlPFC is related to improvements in attentional processes and stimulating right dlPFC is rather related to downregulating of emotional information (Tremblay et al., 2014). However, a systematic comparison of right vs left stimulation is necessary to have a greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying brain stimulation. Hence, the aim of the current study was to investigate whether emotion and attention can be modulated through bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the dlPFC and particularly the effects of the tDCS with different montages (left/right) considering an inhibition-related ERP component (P3 and N2; Luck & Kappenman, 2012) which may positively correlate with the cognitive performance.
36 healthy participants received 20 minutes active (11 participants left or 10 participants right dlPFC) or sham stimulation (15 participants). Before and after tDCS stimulation, we measured behavioral performances and event-related potentials (N2 and P3) during an antisaccade task where valence is modulated using neutral vs angry faces.
When the left and right dlPFC stimulation were compared with the sham condition, results showed that P3 amplitude in the left dlPFC group was higher when participants need to look away from the angry faces. This result is more prominent on the right parietal side. We could not observe similar effects in N2 amplitudes or saccade latencies. An increment in P3 amplitudes following the left dLPFC stimulation can potentially, yet speculatively, indicate that stimulating left dlPFC promotes successful inhibition of emotional faces. However since this effect could only be observed in the late inhibition related ERP component (p3) which may potentially require more cognitive effort to be triggered, future studies are recommended investigating other late potential such as LPP.