Disrupting pre-SMA activity impairs facial happiness recognition: an event-related TMS study.
It has been suggested that the left pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) could be implicated in facial emotion expression and recognition, especially for laughter/happiness. To test this hypothesis, in a single-blind, randomized crossover study, we investigated the impact of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on performances of 18 healthy participants during a facial emotion recognition task. Using a neuronavigation system based on T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of each participant, TMS (5 pulses, 10 Hz) was delivered over the pre-SMA or the vertex (control condition) in an event-related fashion after the presentation of happy, fear, and angry faces. Compared with performances during vertex stimulation, we observed that TMS applied over the left pre-SMA specifically disrupted facial happiness recognition (FHR). No difference was observed between the 2 conditions neither for fear and anger recognition nor for reaction times (RT). Thus, interfering with pre-SMA activity with event-related TMS after stimulus presentation produced a selective impairment in the recognition of happy faces. These findings provide new insights into the functional implication of the pre-SMA in FHR, which may rely on the mirror properties of pre-SMA neurons.
EA4615-SIPAD, Université Lyon 1, CH Le Vinatier, Bron F-69677, France. vincent.rochas@unige.ch
Vincent
V
Rochas
Lauriane
L
Gelmini
Pierre
P
Krolak-Salmon
Emmanuel
E
Poulet
Mohamed
M
Saoud
Jerome
J
Brunelin
Benoit
B
Bediou
D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D038361:Neuronavigation; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult