Combined effects of tDCS over the left DLPFC and gaze-contingent training on attention mechanisms of emotion regulation in low-resilient individuals

Sánchez-López, Álvaro; Raedt, Rudi De; Puttevils, Louise; Koster, Ernst H. W.; Baeken, Chris; Vanderhasselt, Marie‐Anne

doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2020.110177

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The former focused on the differences in the frequency of use of emotion regulation strategies measured by questionnaire before and after tDCS or TMS interventions, to assess the effect of intervention on emotion regulation [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. The latter directly observed the regulating effect of NIBS on the up- and down-regulation of emotions by stimulating related brain regions during or before the implementation of the emotion regulation task, and the interaction between stimulation and emotion regulation strategies can also be observed at the same time [ 43 , 44 , 45 ]. In these studies, participants report their emotional states after a particular emotion regulation strategy during or after stimulation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on the Downregulation of Negative Emotions: A Meta-Analysis

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2022

Brain Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

(1) Background: Emotion regulation (ER) is regarded as a core treatment target for depression and other mental illnesses. In recent years, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been extensively used as an intervention for mental illnesses, but there has been no systematic review conducted regarding its effect on emotion regulation. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of NIBS for emotion regulation; (2) Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in Embase, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. We analyzed the effects of NIBS on tasks assessing emotion regulation using a random-effects model, and further explored the moderating role of the following factors on transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies by conducting subgroup analyses and meta-regression: target electrode placement, return electrode placement, current intensity, target electrode size, and duration of intervention; (3) Results: A total of 17 studies were included. Our meta-analysis indicated a small but significant effect of NIBS on the downregulation of negative emotions. Separate analyses indicated that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) had a medium and significant effect on the downregulation of negative emotions, whereas tDCS had no significant effect. Subgroup analyses showed that the effect of tDCS was moderated by target and return electrode placemen; (4) Conclusions: These results indicate that NIBS had a positive effect on the downregulation of negative emotions. The stimulation protocols should be carefully considered and the underlying mechanisms should be further explored.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on the Downregulation of Negative Emotions: A Meta-Analysis

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2022

Brain Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The DLPFC might not only be implicated in cognitive processes, but also in emotional ones: administration of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to the left DLFPC in MDD patients increased empathetic happiness and decreased anhedonia (Light, Bieliauskas, & Taylor, 2019 ). Using tDCS of the lDLPFC combined with gaze-contingent training was shown to improve attention regulation in low-resilient individuals (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2020 ). DLPFC volume was furthermore shown to be a mediator between socioeconomic status and executive functioning (Shaked et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

DLPFC volume is a neural correlate of resilience in healthy high-risk individuals with both childhood maltreatment and familial risk for depression

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Two prominent risk factors for major depressive disorder (MDD) are childhood maltreatment (CM) and familial risk for MDD. Despite having these risk factors, there are individuals who maintain mental health, i.e. are resilient, whereas others develop MDD. It is unclear which brain morphological alterations are associated with this kind of resilience. Interaction analyses of risk and diagnosis status are needed that can account for complex adaptation processes, to identify neural correlates of resilience. Methods We analyzed brain structural data (3T magnetic resonance imaging) by means of voxel-based morphometry (CAT12 toolbox), using a 2 × 2 design, comparing four groups (N = 804) that differed in diagnosis (healthy v. MDD) and risk profiles (low-risk, i.e. absence of CM and familial risk v. high-risk, i.e. presence of both CM and familial risk). Using regions of interest (ROIs) from the literature, we conducted an interaction analysis of risk and diagnosis status. Results Volume in the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), part of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), was significantly higher in healthy high-risk individuals. There were no significant results for the bilateral superior frontal gyri, frontal poles, pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyri, and the right MFG. Conclusions The healthy high-risk group had significantly higher volumes in the left DLPFC compared to all other groups. The DLPFC is implicated in cognitive and emotional processes, and higher volume in this area might aid high-risk individuals in adaptive coping in order to maintain mental health. This increased volume might therefore constitute a neural correlate of resilience to MDD in high risk.

show abstract

“…There is a growing body of research suggesting that training emotional attentional flexibility can promote adaptive emotion regulatory processes (e.g., cognitive reappraisal; cognitive reframing of a stimuli or situation to change its meaning and emotional valence), while undermining maladaptive regulatory processes (e.g., rumination; Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2016, 2019a. Moreover, combining prefrontal tDCS with attention training shows the largest adaptive effects on cognitive reappraisal and rumination, thereby highlighting the importance of multimodal interventions (Sanchez-Lopez et al, 2020). In future studies the effects of prefrontal tDCS combined with attentional training (i.e., focusing less on yourself) on SET reactivity could be investigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prefrontal tDCS Attenuates Self-Referential Attentional Deployment: A Mechanism Underlying Adaptive Emotional Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat

Allaert

Erdogan

Sánchez-López

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social-evaluative threat (SET) – a situation in which one could be negatively evaluated by others – elicits profound (psycho)physiological reactivity which, if chronically present and not adaptively regulated, has deleterious effects on mental and physical health. Decreased self-awareness and increased other-awareness are understood to be an adaptive response to SET. Attentional deployment – the process of selectively attending to certain aspects of emotional stimuli to modulate emotional reactivity – is supported by fronto-parietal and fronto-limbic networks, with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex being a central hub. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of active (versus sham) prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on self and other-attentional deployment during the exposure to a SET context. Seventy-four female participants received active or sham tDCS and were subsequently exposed to a rigged social feedback paradigm. In this paradigm a series of social evaluations were presented together with a photograph of the supposed evaluator and a self- photograph of the participant, while gaze behavior (time to first fixation, total fixation time) and skin conductance responses (SCRs; a marker of emotional reactivity) were measured. For half of the evaluations, participants could anticipate the valence (negative or positive) of the evaluation a priori. Analyses showed that participants receiving active tDCS were (a) slower to fixate on their self-photograph, (b) spent less time fixating on their self-photograph, and (c) spent more time fixating on the evaluator photograph. During unanticipated evaluations, active tDCS was associated with less time spent fixating on the evaluation. Furthermore, among those receiving active tDCS, SCRs were attenuated as a function of slower times to fixate on the self-photograph. Taken together, these results suggest that in a context of SET, prefrontal tDCS decreases self-attention while increasing other-attention, and that attenuated self-referential attention specifically may be a neurocognitive mechanism through which tDCS reduces emotional reactivity. Moreover, the results suggest that tDCS reduces vigilance toward stimuli that possibly convey threatening information, corroborating past research in this area.

show abstract

Combined effects of tDCS over the left DLPFC and gaze-contingent training on attention mechanisms of emotion regulation in low-resilient individuals

Cited by 15 publications

References 44 publications

The Effect of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on the Downregulation of Negative Emotions: A Meta-Analysis

The Effect of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation on the Downregulation of Negative Emotions: A Meta-Analysis

DLPFC volume is a neural correlate of resilience in healthy high-risk individuals with both childhood maltreatment and familial risk for depression

Prefrontal tDCS Attenuates Self-Referential Attentional Deployment: A Mechanism Underlying Adaptive Emotional Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About