Modulation of sustained fear by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC)

Simons, Bibiane Stephanie Elisabeth; Horst, Anna K.; Boehme, Stephanie; Straube, Thomas; Polak, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.10.013

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Before the current work, previous studies examining the role of RVLPFC in emotion regulation were carried out relying on only social exclusion emotions, without presenting individual emotions as baseline (Eisenberger et al ., 2003; Masten et al ., 2009; Onoda et al ., 2010; Yanagisawa et al ., 2011; Riva et al ., 2012, 2015). Also, while recent tDCS studies explored the role of RVLPFC in regulation of negative emotions such as fear, anxiety and sadness (Herrmann et al ., 2018; Vergallito et al ., 2018), down-regulation of negative feelings evoked by social exclusion has been neglected. The novel contribution of this study is to test whether the RVLPFC plays a more prominent role in emotion regulation of social compared to individual originated experiences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

Liu

Zhao

et al. 2019

Psychol. Med.

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BackgroundGrowing evidence has indicated that right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) is critical in down-regulating emotional responses to social exclusion, and that depression is accompanied by social emotional dysregulation associated with reduced lateral prefrontal engagement. This study used anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to examine whether stimulating RVLPFC could improve emotional down-regulation of social exclusion in individuals with high depressive mood (DM).MethodsA total of 96 high and 94 low DM individuals received active or sham tDCS while viewing social exclusion or individual negative pictures under no-reappraisal (passive viewing) and reappraisal conditions. Participants rate their negative emotional experience following the presentation of each image. Pupil diameter and visual fixation duration were also recorded during the task.ResultsIt was found that tDCS-activated RVLPFC induced a stronger regulation effect on social exclusion than individual negative emotions. The effect of tDCS on regulation of social exclusion was more pronounced in low v. high DM individuals.ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate the specific role of RVLPFC on social emotion regulation, which has implications for refining target areas for the treatment of social emotion dysregulation in depression. However the findings do not suggest that high DM individuals benefit from a single-tDCS session on the emotion regulation of social exclusion. Thus we suggest to use multiple tDCS sessions or transcranial magnetic stimulation to further explore the therapeutic proposal in the future.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

Liu

Zhao

et al. 2019

Psychol. Med.

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“…Individual differences in situational (state) anxiety were measured using the state anxiety subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) [47]. Individual differences in dispositional (trait) anxiety were measured using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) [48] and the trait anxiety subscale of the STAI. All the participants rated the social support they received from friends, family and significant others in daily life on the Multidimensional Scale of Perceives Social Support (MSPSS) [49], and their overall stress level during the experiment ('How stressful did you find the experiment?')…”

Section: (B) Scalesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants were presented with aversive and neutral sounds via headphones in conjunction with images on a black screen. The sounds were taken from the International Affective Digital Sounds system (IADS) [47], and lasted 4 s. They were selected based on the ratings of two groups of participants that had been collected in one of our previous studies (n = 80 in total) [48]. The sounds that were used as aversive stimuli (human screams) were rated as significantly more anxiety-inducing than the sounds used as neutral stimuli (natural sounds), The type of the upcoming sound was indicated by an image (cue) presented on a black screen: a white circle was the cue for aversive sounds, a white square preceded neutral sounds.…”

Section: (C) Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

The mere physical presence of another person reduces human autonomic responses to aversive sounds

Bell

Fackler

et al. 2020

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Social animals show reduced physiological responses to aversive events if a conspecific is physically present. Although humans are innately social, it is unclear whether the mere physical presence of another person is sufficient to reduce human autonomic responses to aversive events. In our study, participants experienced aversive and neutral sounds alone (alone treatment) or with an unknown person that was physically present without providing active support. The present person was a member of the participants' ethnical group (ingroup treatment) or a different ethnical group (outgroup treatment), inspired by studies that have found an impact of similarity on social modulation effects. We measured skin conductance responses (SCRs) and collected subjective similarity and affect ratings. The mere presence of an ingroup or outgroup person significantly reduced SCRs to the aversive sounds compared with the alone condition, in particular in participants with high situational anxiety. Moreover, the effect was stronger if participants perceived the ingroup or outgroup person as dissimilar to themselves. Our results indicate that the mere presence of another person was sufficient to diminish autonomic responses to aversive events in humans, and thus verify the translational validity of basic social modulation effects across different species.

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“…The rationale of this augmentation strategy is to increase the activity of the prefrontal cortex during or directly after exposure therapy. Transcranial magnetic stimulation augmentation was successful in one study in specific phobia [28] and another in PTSD [45]. A different approach is the administration of oxytocin during exposure therapy, with the aim of augmenting efficacy through an enhancement of neuroplasticity.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Augmentation of Psychotherapy with Neurobiological Methods: Current State and Future Directions

Hertenstein¹,

Trinca²,

Schneider³

et al. 2021

Neuropsychobiology

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Background: Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are first-line treatments for mental disorders. Despite recent improvements, only approximately 50% of the patients reach sustained remission, indicating a need for novel developments. The main concept put forward in this systematic review and hypothesis article is the targeted co-administration of defined neurobiological interventions and specific psychotherapeutic techniques. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search for randomized controlled trials comparing the efficacy of augmented psychotherapy to psychotherapy alone. Results: Thirty-five trials fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The majority (29 trials) used augmentation strategies such as D-cycloserine, yohimbine, or sleep to enhance the effects of exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. Fewer studies investigated noninvasive brain stimulation with the aim of improving cognitive control, psychedelic compounds with the aim of enhancing existentially oriented psychotherapy, and oxytocin to improve social communication during psychotherapy. Results demonstrate small augmentation effects for the enhancement of exposure therapy – however, some of the studies found negative results. Other methods are less thoroughly researched, and results are mixed. Conclusions: This approach provides an open matrix for further research and has the potential to systematically guide future studies.

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Modulation of sustained fear by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right inferior frontal cortex (rIFC)

Cited by 12 publications

References 30 publications

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

Improving emotion regulation of social exclusion in depression-prone individuals: a tDCS study targeting right VLPFC

The mere physical presence of another person reduces human autonomic responses to aversive sounds

Augmentation of Psychotherapy with Neurobiological Methods: Current State and Future Directions

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