Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Holbrook, Colin; Gordon, Chelsea; Iacoboni, Marco

doi:10.3791/58204

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 67 publications

(86 reference statements)

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“…Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) reduces activity for approximately one hour, in an effect similar to long-term depression (see Holbrook, Gordon & Iacoboni, 2018). Following the procedure used in the original study, we stimulated the right PMFC in the experimental condition: RCZ, Brodmann areas 24, 32, 6 and 9.…”

Section: Down-regulating Pmfc Via Continuous Theta Burst Stimulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

Holbrook¹,

Iacoboni²,

Gordon³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Harm to some elicits greater sympathy than harm to others. Here, we examine the role of posterior medial frontal cortex (PMFC) in regulating sympathy, and explore the potential role of PMFC in the related phenomena of mentalizing and representing others as connected with oneself. We down-regulated either PMFC or a control region (middle temporal visual area), then assessed feelings of sympathy for and self-other overlap with two characters described as having suffered physical harm, and who were framed as adversarial or affiliative, respectively. We also measured mentalizing performance with regard to inferring the cognitive and affective states of the adversarial character. As hypothesized, down-regulating PMFC increased sympathy for both characters. Whereas we had predicted that down-regulating PMFC would decrease mentalizing ability given the postulated role of PMFC in the mentalizing network, participants in the PMFC down-regulation condition evinced greater second-order cognitive inference ability relative to controls. We observed no effect of the TMS manipulation on self-other overlap, although sympathy and self-other overlap were positively correlated. These findings are discussed as they may inform understanding of the functional role(s) of PMFC in regulating responses broadly linked with empathy.

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Section: Down-regulating Pmfc Via Continuous Theta Burst Stimulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

Holbrook¹,

Iacoboni²,

Gordon³

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) reduces activity in the stimulated area for an estimated period of approximately one hour, in an effect similar to long-term depression (for details, see Holbrook, Gordon & Iacoboni, 2018). As in the original study, we stimulated the right pMFC in the experimental condition: rostral cingulate zone, Brodmann areas 24, 32, 6 and 9.…”

Section: Theta Burst Stimulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex and Threat-Enhanced Religious Belief: A Replication and Extension

Holbrook¹,

Iacoboni²,

Gordon³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Research indicates that the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) functions as a ‘neural alarm’broadly involved in registering threats and helping to muster relevant responses. Holbrook andcolleagues (2016) investigated whether pMFC similarly mediates ideological threat-responses,finding that down-regulating pMFC via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) caused i) lessavowed religious belief despite being reminded of death, and ii) less group bias despiteencountering a sharp critique of the national in-group. While suggestive, these findings werelimited by the absence of a non-threat comparison condition and reliance on sham rather thancontrol TMS. Here, in a pre-registered replication and extension, we down-regulated pMFC or acontrol region (MT/V5), then primed participants with either a reminder of death or a threatneutraltopic. As previously, participants reminded of death reported less religious belief whenpMFC was down-regulated. No such effect of pMFC down-regulation was observed in theneutral writing condition, consistent with construing pMFC as monitoring for salient threats(e.g., death) and helping to recruit ideological responses (e.g., enhanced religious belief).However, no effect of down-regulating pMFC on group bias was observed, possibly due toreliance here on a collegiate in-group framing rather than a national framing as in the prior study.

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“…TBS protocols have been modeled from repetitive electrical stimulation protocols that induced long-term potentiation or long-term depression in animal studies ( Huang et al , 2005 ). Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) reduces activity for approximately 1 h (see Holbrook et al , 2018 ). Following the procedure used in the original study, we stimulated the right pMFC in the experimental condition: RCZ, Brodmann areas 24, 32, 6 and 9.…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Posterior medial frontal cortex and threat-enhanced religious belief: a replication and extension

Holbrook

Iacoboni

Gordon

et al. 2020

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Research indicates that the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) functions as a ‘neural alarm’ complex broadly involved in registering threats and helping to muster relevant responses. Holbrook and colleagues (2016) investigated whether pMFC similarly mediates ideological threat-responses, finding that down-regulating pMFC via transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) caused i) less avowed religious belief despite being reminded of death, and ii) less group bias despite encountering a sharp critique of the national in-group. While suggestive, these findings were limited by the absence of a non-threat comparison condition and reliance on sham rather than control TMS. Here, in a pre-registered replication and extension, we down-regulated pMFC or a control region (MT/V5), then primed participants with either a reminder of death or a threat-neutral topic. As previously, participants reminded of death reported less religious belief when pMFC was down-regulated. No such effect of pMFC down-regulation was observed in the neutral condition, consistent with construing pMFC as monitoring for salient threats (e.g., death) and helping to recruit ideological responses (e.g., enhanced religious belief). However, no effect of down-regulating pMFC on group bias was observed, possibly due to reliance here on a collegiate in-group framing rather than a national framing as in the prior study.

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Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation of the Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex to Experimentally Reduce Ideological Threat Responses

Cited by 4 publications

References 67 publications

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex Regulates Sympathy: A TMS Study

Posterior Medial Frontal Cortex and Threat-Enhanced Religious Belief: A Replication and Extension

Posterior medial frontal cortex and threat-enhanced religious belief: a replication and extension

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