The theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right PFC affects electroencephalogram oscillation during emotional processing

Publication date: 2 March 2018 Source:Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, Volume 82 Author(s): Dan Cao, Yingjie Li, Margaret A. Niznikiewicz, Yingying Tang, Jijun Wang Prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays an important role in emotional processing and therefore is one of the most frequently targeted regions for non-invasive brain stimulation such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) in clinical trials, especially in the treatment of emotional disorders. As an approach to enhance the effectiveness of rTMS, continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) has been demonstrated to be efficient and safe. However, it is unclear how cTBS affects brain processes related to emotion. In particular, psychophysiological studies on the underlying neural mechanisms are sparse. In the current study, we investigated how the cTBS influences emotional processing when applied over the right PFC. Participants performed an emotion recognition Go/NoGo task, which asked them to select a GO response to either happy or fearful faces after the cTBS or after sham stimulation, while 64-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. EEG oscillation was examined using event-related spectral perturbation (ERSP) in a time-interval between 170 and 310ms after face stimuli onset. In the sham group, we found a significant difference in the alpha band between response to happy and fearful stimuli but that effect did not exist in the cTBS group. The alpha band activity at...
Source: Progress in Neuro Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research