Transcranial magnetic stimulation of medial-frontal cortex impairs the processing of angry facial expressions.
Growing evidence suggests that the recognition of different emotional states involves at least partly separable neural circuits. Here we assessed the discrimination of both anger and happiness in healthy subjects receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the medial-frontal cortex or over a control site (mid-line parietal cortex). We found that TMS over the medial-frontal cortex impairs the processing of angry, but not happy, facial expressions of emotion.
Harmer
C J
CJ
MRC Human Movement and Balance Unit, Institute of Neurology, 8-11 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK. catherine.harmer@psych.ox.ac.uk
Thilo
K V
KV
Rothwell
J C
JC
Goodwin
G M
GM
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation