Perceiving human motion, recognizing actions, and interpreting emotional body languageare tasks we perform daily and which are supported by a network of brain areas includingthe human posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS). Here, we applied transcranialdirect current stimulation (tDCS) with anodal (excitatory) or cathodal (inhibitory) electrodesmounted over right pSTS (target) and orbito-frontal cortex (reference) while healthyparticipants performed a bodily emotion recognition task using biological motion pointlightdisplays (PLDs). Performance (accuracy and reaction times) was also assessed ona control task which was matched to the emotion recognition task in terms of cognitiveand motor demands. Each subject participated in two experimental sessions, receivingeither anodal or cathodal stimulation, which were separated by one week to avoidresidual effects of previous stimulations. Overall, tDCS brain stimulation did not affectthe recognition of emotional states from PLDs. However, when emotions with a negativeor positive–neutral emotional valence were analyzed separately, effects of stimulationwere shown for recognizing emotions with a negative emotional valence (sadness andanger), indicating increased recognition performance when receiving anodal (excitatory)stimulation compared to cathodal (inhibitory) stimulation over pSTS. No stimulation effectswere shown for the recognition of emotions with positive–neutral emotional valences.These findings extend previous studies showing structure–function relationships betweenSTS and biological motion processing from PLDs and provide indications that stimulationeffects may be modulated by the emotional valence of the stimuli.
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