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

Abstract

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.

The right VLPFC and downregulation of social pain: A TMS study

“…The immediate and delayed effects of rTMS on emotion regulation has been assessed. Beyond our previous study (He et al, 2018(He et al, , 2019, we added the LPP as a neural index to F I G U R E 4 Post-task picture ratings using a 9-point scale. (a) The valence of pictures with higher scores indicating more positive of pictures (1 for the most negative and 9 for the most positive).…”

“…Social pain not only strongly threatens basic human needs such as belonging, control, and meaningful existence (Williams, ; Zadro, Williams, & Richardson, ), but also decreases prosocial behavior (Twenge, Baumeister, DeWall, Ciarocco, & Bartels, ) while increasing aggression (Richman & Leary, ; Twenge, Baumeister, Tice, & Stucke, ), thus leading to low self‐esteem, depression or alienation (Onoda et al, ; Wang, Braun, & Enck, ; Williams, ). To mitigate the distressing feelings and negative effects elicited by social pain, effective emotion regulation is a helpful and easily feasible solution (Gross, ; He et al, ; He, Liu, Zhao, Elliott, & Zhang, ).…”

“…depression or alienation (Onoda et al, 2010;Wang, Braun, & Enck, 2017;Williams, 2007). To mitigate the distressing feelings and negative effects elicited by social pain, effective emotion regulation is a helpful and easily feasible solution (Gross, 2002;He et al, 2018;He, Liu, Zhao, Elliott, & Zhang, 2019).…”

“…This implicit function of RVLPFC in regulation of social pain has been causally demonstrated by studies using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): anodal excitement of RVLPFC reduced social pain and behavioral aggression caused by social exclusion or romantic rejection (Hsu et al, 2015;Riva, Romero, Dewall, & Bushman, 2012;Riva, Romero, DeWall, Chester, & Bushman, 2015), while cathodal inhibition of RVLPFC increased social pain (Riva, Romero, Vergallito, DeWall, & Bushman, 2015). To address directly whether RVLPFC causally regulates social pain, our previous tDCS studies used an explicit emotion regulation task and provided direct evidence for the role of RVLPFC in emotion regulation of social pain (He et al, 2018(He et al, , 2019.…”

“…To probe the potential efficacy of TMS-RVLPFC to clinical practice, this study tested not only the immediate, but also the delayed effect of rTMS on emotion regulation. In line with our previous study (He et al, 2018(He et al, , 2019, we chose cognitive reappraisal as the emotion regulation strategy due to its wide application (Buhle et al, 2014) and relatively long-lasting regulation effects compared with other emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression and distraction (Kross & Ayduk, 2008;Ochsner & Gross, 2005;Ochsner, Silvers, & Buhle, 2012;Webb, Miles, & Sheeran, 2012).…”