Effects of Unilateral Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of Left Prefrontal Cortex on Processing and Memory of Emotional Visual Stimuli

摘要

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is generally thought to be involved in affect and\udemotional processing; however, the specific contribution of each hemisphere continues to\udbe debated. In the present study, we employed unilateral tDCS to test the unique contribution\udof left DLPFC in the encoding and retrieval of emotional stimuli in healthy subjects.\udForty-two right handed undergraduate students received either anodal, cathodal or sham\udstimulation of left DLPFC while viewing neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant pictures. After\udcompleting a filler task, participants were asked to remember as many pictures as possible.\udResults showed that participants were able to remember a larger amount of emotional (both\udpleasant and unpleasant) pictures than of neutral ones, regardless of the type of tDCS condition.\udParticipants who received anodal stimulation recalled a significantly higher number\udof pleasant images than participants in the sham and cathodal conditions, while no differences\udemerged in the recall of neutral and unpleasant pictures. We conclude that our\udresults provide some support to the role of left prefrontal cortex in the encoding and retrieval\udof pleasant stimuli.