Abstract
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is generally thought to be involved in affect and emotional processing; however, the specific contribution of each hemisphere continues to be debated. In the present study, we employed unilateral tDCS to test the unique contribution of left DLPFC in the encoding and retrieval of emotional stimuli in healthy subjects. Forty-two right handed undergraduate students received either anodal, cathodal or sham stimulation of left DLPFC while viewing neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant pictures. After completing a filler task, participants were asked to remember as many pictures as possible. Results showed that participants were able to remember a larger amount of emotional (both pleasant and unpleasant) pictures than of neutral ones, regardless of the type of tDCS condition. Participants who received anodal stimulation recalled a significantly higher number of pleasant images than participants in the sham and cathodal conditions, while no differences emerged in the recall of neutral and unpleasant pictures. We conclude that our results provide some support to the role of left prefrontal cortex in the encoding and retrieval of pleasant stimuli.
Highlights
Besides the well-established role of subcortical structures in the limbic system such as the amygdala in the processing of affective information, other components of the emotional processing network such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have received growing attention [1,2,3,4]
Recent studies have shown that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)–which is traditionally thought to be involved in purely cognitive and executive functions − contributes to emotional processes such as emotional judgment and memory encoding of emotional stimuli [2, 5,6]
In the present transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) study, healthy volunteers received left DLPFC unilateral stimulation during presentation and encoding of neutral, pleasant and unpleasant pictures in order to test its effects on a subsequent free recall task
Summary
Besides the well-established role of subcortical structures in the limbic system such as the amygdala in the processing of affective information, other components of the emotional processing network such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have received growing attention [1,2,3,4]. Recent studies have shown that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)–which is traditionally thought to be involved in purely cognitive and executive functions (e.g., working memory) − contributes to emotional processes such as emotional judgment (i.e., evaluations of affective valence [3]) and memory encoding of emotional stimuli [2, 5,6]. Left DLPFC and Emotional Memory support the valence-specific hypothesis, providing evidence of anterior asymmetry in favor of left prefrontal regions for the processing of pleasant or approach-related emotional stimuli, and of right prefrontal areas for the processing of unpleasant or withdrawal-related ones [2,3, 6, 7,8,9, 10,11]. Other studies do not report evidence consistent with hemispheric asymmetry in PFC [12,13,14,15]. More evidence on the specific role of the left DLPC are still needed, and the present paper aims at focusing on this specific aspect
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