title: Effects of Unilateral Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of Left Prefrontal Cortex on Processing and Memory of Emotional Visual Stimuli.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balzarotti
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Gemelli 1, 20123 Milano, Italy.|Division of Education and Human Studies, Champlain College, 251 South Willard Street, Burlington, VT 05402, United States of America.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4095-9633
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Colombo
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D000786:Anger / Q000502:physiology; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000502:physiology*; D004566:Electrodes; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010781:Photography; D057181:Pleasure / Q000502:physiology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult