Emotion perception improvement following high frequency transcranial random noise stimulation of the inferior frontal cortex

Abstract

Facial emotion perception plays a key role in interpersonal communication and is a precursor for a variety of socio-cognitive abilities. One brain region thought to support emotion perception is the inferior frontal cortex (IFC). The current study aimed to examine whether modulating neural activity in the IFC using high frequency transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) could enhance emotion perception abilities. In Experiment 1, participants received either tRNS to IFC or sham stimulation prior to completing facial emotion and identity perception tasks. Those receiving tRNS significantly outperformed those receiving sham stimulation on facial emotion, but not identity, perception tasks. In Experiment 2, we examined whether baseline performance interacted with the effects of stimulation. Participants completed a facial emotion and identity discrimination task prior to and following tRNS to either IFC or an active control region (area V5/MT). Baseline performance was a significant predictor of emotion discrimination performance change following tRNS to IFC. This effect was not observed for tRNS targeted at V5/MT or for identity discrimination. Overall, the findings implicate the IFC in emotion processing and demonstrate that tRNS may be a useful tool to modulate emotion perception when accounting for individual differences in factors such as baseline task performance.

Blocking facial mimicry affects recognition of facial and body expressions

“…In line with this proposal, neuroimaging techniques have shown that (pre)motor and somatosensory regions representing the face are active during the perception of emotional face [32][33][34][35], and neural activity in these regions correlates with the degree of facial mimicry [36][37][38]. Moreover, damage to, or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) interference with, the face representations in motor and somatosensory areas disrupts facial mimicry and impairs the recognition and interpretation of emotional expressions [39][40][41][42][43][44] (see also [45]). Furthermore, sensorimotor simulation would in turn affect theory of mind and emotion-related regions including the amygdala and the insula [31], especially for dynamic emotional stimuli [46,47].…”

Using High Frequency Transcranial Random Noise Stimulation to Modulate Face Memory Performance in Younger and Older Adults: Lessons Learnt From Mixed Findings

“…These baseline differences in brain state may then interact with the effects of stimulation. Several studies using non-invasive brain stimulation have shown that baseline performance can predict the magnitude of change in performance following tES (e.g., Tseng et al, 2012 , 2018 ; Hsu et al, 2014 , 2016 ; Krause and Cohen Kadosh, 2014 ; Benwell et al, 2015 ; Fertonani and Miniussi, 2017 ; Penton et al, 2017 ). It has been suggested that this may be due to differential recruitment of brain networks/brain state in high and low performers ( Tseng et al, 2012 ; Krause and Cohen Kadosh, 2014 ).…”

“…A final further consideration of our results is the choice of stimulation parameters used. While prior work has shown that the use of bilateral electrode montages for tRNS stimulation can modulate performance in cognitive and perceptual domains (e.g., Cappelletti et al, 2013 ; Snowball et al, 2013 ; Joos et al, 2015 ; Romanska et al, 2015 ; Campana et al, 2016 ; Popescu et al, 2016 ; van der Groen and Wenderoth, 2016 ; van Koningsbruggen et al, 2016 ; Looi et al, 2017 ; Penton et al, 2017 ; Yang and Banissy, 2017 ), recent work using bilateral electrode montages for tRNS to stimulate the motor system has found that this approach does not induce the classical excitatory effects of unilateral tRNS ( Parkin et al, 2018 ). This is similar to studies of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS: a more commonly used transcranial electrical brain stimulation technique), where many studies find behavioral differences using bilateral electrode montages, but work using bilateral tDCS montages to modulate activity in the motor system has found mixed results on motor cortex excitability changes (e.g., Nitsche and Paulus, 2000 ; Mordillo-Mateos et al, 2012 ; Sehm et al, 2013 ; Parkin et al, 2018 ).…”

“…To further explore this effect, we examined how individual differences in baseline performance (i.e., sham) performance were related to performance change following active stimulation. There were three reasons for doing this: (1) prior work has suggested that baseline ability can interact with stimulation outcome effects following transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) (e.g., Tseng et al, 2012 ; Hsu et al, 2014 , 2016 ; Krause and Cohen Kadosh, 2014 ; Benwell et al, 2015 ; Fertonani and Miniussi, 2017 ; Penton et al, 2017 ; Tseng et al, 2018 ); (2) inter-individual differences in memory performance have been shown to increase with age (e.g., Morse, 1993 ); and (3) different patterns of activation of the VLPFC have been reported for high versus low- performing older adults ( Cabeza et al, 2002 ). To explore possible individual differences, we conducted a hierarchal regression to examine how baseline performance influenced performance change following active stimulation (active tRNS performance minus sham tRNS performance).…”

tDCS Facilitation of Picture Naming: Item-Specific, Task General, or Neither?

“…In addition to their greater sensitivity, a major benefit of learning paradigms is that they are closer to those used with impaired populations, which may lead to further developments relevant to neurorehabilitation. Finally, investigations with potentially more effective electrical waveforms, such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) or transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) may prove fruitful for the modulation of higher order cognition in younger adults (e.g., Paulus, 2011 ; Snowball et al, 2013 ; Romanska et al, 2015 ; Penton et al, 2017 ).…”