No Effect of Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Fear Memory in Healthy Human Subjects.
BACKGROUND
Studies have demonstrated that fear memories can be modified using non-invasive methods. Recently, we demonstrated that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is capable of enhancing fear memories. Here, we examined the effects of cathodal tDCS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during fear reconsolidation in humans.


METHODS
Seventeen young, healthy subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, which underwent fear conditioning with mild electric stimuli paired with a visual stimulus. Twenty-four hours later, both groups were shown a reminder of the conditioned fearful stimulus. Shortly thereafter, they received either tDCS (right prefrontal-cathodal, left supraorbital-anodal) for 20 min at 1 mA, or sham stimulation. A day later, fear responses of both groups were compared.


RESULTS
On Day 3, during fear response assessment, there were no significant differences between the tDCS and sham group (p >0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that cathodal tDCS of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (right prefrontal-cathodal, left supraorbital-anodal) did not influence fear memories.
Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité, Berlin 14050, Germany. aditya.mungee@charite.de.|Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität, Berlin 14195, Germany. aditya.mungee@charite.de.
Aditya
A
Mungee
Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité, Berlin 14050, Germany. max-benedict.burger@charite.de.
Max
M
Burger
Department of Psychiatry, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité, Berlin 14050, Germany. malek.bajbouj@charite.de.|Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion", Freie Universität, Berlin 14195, Germany. malek.bajbouj@charite.de.|Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion, Freie Universität, Berlin 14195, Germany. malek.bajbouj@charite.de.
Malek
M
Bajbouj
direct current stimulation; fear conditioning; memory; prefrontal cortex