Theta burst stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex disrupts attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Theta burst stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex disrupts attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing D. A. Bolton1* and W. R. Staines1 1 University of Waterloo, Department of Kinesiology, Canada Damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) impairs gating of irrelevant sensory information at early cortical processing stages. We investigated how transient inhibition of DLPFC impacts early event-related potentials (ERPs) arising from relevant or irrelevant vibrotactile stimuli to the fingertips. Specifically, we hypothesized that suppression of DLPFC using continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) would result in a reduction of attention-based modulation of tactile ERPs at parietal electrode sites. Participants received vibrotactile stimulation to the index and little finger on the left hand and reported target stimuli on one digit only (as instructed) in one of three groups (n = 12/group) following: (1) cTBS over F4 (40s; 600 pulses of 3 stimuli at 50Hz repeated at 5Hz using 80% of resting motor threshold for abductor pollicis brevis), (2) sham stimulation, or (3) no stimulation. Early ERP amplitudes (< 200ms post-stimulation) were quantified for attended and non-attended trials (C4/CP4). The P100 was significantly reduced for non-attended versus attended stimuli in both sham and no stimulation groups. Conversely, there was no difference between attended and non-attended ERPs following cTBS. The absence of attentional modulation of early ERPs post-cTBS suggests that the DLPFC contributes to filtering irrelevant somatosensory information at early cortical processing stages. Conference: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Abstracts Citation: Bolton DA and Staines WR (2010). Theta burst stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex disrupts attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing. Conference Abstract: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00059 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 28 Jun 2010; Published Online: 28 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: D. A Bolton, University of Waterloo, Department of Kinesiology, Waterloo, Canada, dave.bolton@usu.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers D. A Bolton W. R Staines Google D. A Bolton W. R Staines Google Scholar D. A Bolton W. R Staines PubMed D. A Bolton W. R Staines Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.