Dataset Information

Reduced Affective Biasing of Instrumental Action With tDCS Over the Prefrontal Cortex.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Instrumental action is well known to be vulnerable to affective value. Excessive transfer of affective value to instrumental action is thought to contribute to psychiatric disorders. The brain region most commonly implicated in overriding such affective biasing of instrumental action is the prefrontal cortex.

Objective

The aim of the present study was to reduce affective biasing of instrumental action using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in young healthy human volunteers.

Methods

In a double-blind, randomized between-group design, 120 participants received anodal, cathodal and sham tDCS while at the same time (online) performing a task that assessed affective biasing of instrumental action. We placed tDCS electrodes over the anterior part of the prefrontal cortex based on evidence from brain stimulation work demonstrating the role of this brain region in controlling affective biasing of instrumental action.

Results

We showed that prefrontal tDCS reduced affective biasing of instrumental action. Specifically, prefrontal tDCS reduced the degree to which aversive (versus appetitive) cues potentiated instrumental avoidance and suppressed instrumental approach. Contrary to our hypothesis, this effect was seen for cathodal tDCS rather than anodal tDCS.

Conclusion

The results demonstrate the potential utility of prefrontal tDCS as a tool for reducing affective biasing of instrumental behavior, thus opening avenues for interventional research on psychiatric disorders that implicate excessive transfer of affective value.

SUBMITTER: Ly V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4881415 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Reduced Affective Biasing of Instrumental Action With tDCS Over the Prefrontal Cortex.

Ly Verena V Ly Verena V Bergmann Til O TO Gladwin Thomas E TE Volman Inge I Usberti Niccolo N Cools Roshan R Roelofs Karin K

Brain stimulation 20160209 3

<h4>Background</h4>Instrumental action is well known to be vulnerable to affective value. Excessive transfer of affective value to instrumental action is thought to contribute to psychiatric disorders. The brain region most commonly implicated in overriding such affective biasing of instrumental action is the prefrontal cortex.<h4>Objective</h4>The aim of the present study was to reduce affective biasing of instrumental action using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in young healthy ...[more]

PMID: 26968807

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Project description:Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC), can produce significant effects on working memory (WM) performance and associated neurophysiological activity. However, results from previous studies are inconsistent and occasionally contradictory. This inconsistency may be attributed to methodological and individual differences during experiments. This study therefore investigated two hypotheses: (1) A multichannel-optimized montage was expected to be more effective than a classical bipolar montage, because of increased focality. (2) The subjects were expected to benefit differently from the stimulation depending on their initial task performance. In a sham-controlled crossover study, 24 healthy participants received bipolar, multichannel, and sham stimulation for 20 min in randomized order, targeting the lDLPFC while performing a 2-back WM task. After stimulation, electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded at rest and during 2-back and nontarget continuous performance task (CPT) performance. Bipolar and multichannel stimulations were both well tolerated and effectively blinded. We found no effect of stimulation on behavioral performance or neuronal oscillations comparing the classical bipolar or multichannel montage with sham stimulation. We did, however, find an interaction between stimulation and initial task performance. For multichannel stimulation, initially low-performing participants tended to improve their WM performance while initially high-performing participants tended to worsen their performance compared to sham stimulation. Both tDCS montages induced changes in neural oscillatory power, which correlated with baseline performance. The worse the participants' initial WM performance was, the more task-related theta power was induced by multichannel and bipolar stimulation. The same effect was observed for alpha power in the nontarget task following multichannel stimulation. Notably, we were not able to show a superiority of multichannel stimulation compared to bipolar stimulation. Still, comparing both montages with sham stimulation, multichannel stimulation led to stronger effects than bipolar stimulation. The current study highlights the importance of investigating different parameters with potential influence on tDCS effects in combination. Our results demonstrate how individual differences in cognitive performance and electrode montages influence effects of tDCS on neuropsychological performance. These findings support the idea of an individualized and optimized stimulation setting, potentially leading to increased tDCS effects.

Dataset Information

Reduced Affective Biasing of Instrumental Action With tDCS Over the Prefrontal Cortex.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Reduced Affective Biasing of Instrumental Action With tDCS Over the Prefrontal Cortex.

Similar Datasets

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