The influence of rTMS over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on top-down attentional processes

Vanderhasselt

et al. 2011

Psychiatry Research

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Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is as a promising therapeutic tool for major depressive disorder. However, the degree of clinical improvement following rTMS treatment still remains questionable. This pilot study aimed at investigating potential working mechanisms of rTMS by examining the effects on attentional processing towards negative information, a proposed underlying cognitive vulnerability factor for depression. The antidepressant effect of high-frequency (10 Hz) rTMS over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and possible effects on the inhibitory processing of emotional information was assessed in a sample of fourteen depressed patients immediately after the first stimulation session and at the end of a two week treatment period. One session of rTMS caused neither significant self-reported mood changes, nor improvements in inhibitory control towards negative information. After a 10-day treatment period, nine out of our fourteen patients demonstrated significant mood improvements, as indexed by a reduction of more than 50 % on the Hamilton depression rating scale. Responders also demonstrated significant improvements in the inhibitory processing of negative information. This study contributed to the existing evidence of the antidepressant effect of rTMS in the treatment of depression and additionally was able to demonstrate improvements in underlying deficiencies in inhibitory processes towards negative information.

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on the attentional processing of emotional information in major depression: A pilot study

Leyman

Vanderhasselt

et al. 2011

Psychiatry Research

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“…Going beyond correlational data Vanderhasselt et al (2007) used Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) to study the causal relationship between activity in the right DLPFC and expectancy related processes. rTMS is an important technique because it provides researchers with a non-invasive way of transiently activating local processing in neural networks in the brain.…”

Section: Neurognitive Framework Regulation Expectationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of expectancy and proactive control in stress regulation: A neurocognitive framework for regulation expectation

Clinical Psychology Review

Hooley

2016

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When confronted with stressful or emotionally arousing situations, regulatory abilities should allow us to adaptively cope. However, depressed individuals often have a low sense of perceived control and are characterized by a negative expectation bias regarding their ability to deal with future stressful events. Low expectancy concerning the ability to deal with future stressful events may result in less initiation of proactive control, a crucial mechanism of cognitive control reflecting sustained and anticipatory maintenance of goal-relevant information in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to optimize cognitive performance. In this theoretical review we integrate a diverse body of literature. We argue that the expectancy of an individual's regulatory abilities prior to the presentation of an arousing event or stressful task will be related to anticipation and proactive up-or down regulation of specific neurocircuits before the actual encounter with the stressful event occurs, in a manner that can be either adaptive or maladaptive. Moreover, we discuss the important role of self-esteem as well as the ability to accept the situation when coping is not possible. Our approach has implications for a broad range of disorders and conditions in which stress regulation plays a role, and can be used to guide the use of recently developed clinical interventions, as well as to fine-tune interventions to facilitate proactive control. Cortex, stress regulation, anticipation, depression, proactive control, coping, self-esteem, When we are confronted with situations or thoughts perceived as unpleasant, aversive or threatening, a series of biological and psychological processes is activated, generating a coordinated response. This so-called stress response is triggered when an individual's well-being or health is threatened. Relational or financial problems, unpredictability, an acute threat, or a challenging situation such as a job interview are examples of stressful situations or stressors that can initiate a stress response. Regulatory abilities, which we call stress regulation, generally allow us to cope with these situations in an adaptive way. However, there are large individual differences in how well people handle life stressors. Indeed, problems with stress regulation are thought to play a central role in the development and clinical course of depression (Hooley, Orley & Teasdale, 1986;Hankin, 2008;Morris, Ciesla & Garber, 2010). It has also been suggested that, over time, depressive episodes can be triggered by progressively milder and milder stressors (Monroe & Harkness, 2005; but see also Anderson et al., 2016). Keywords: Dorsolateral PrefrontalResearch shows the important role of stress regulation in the development of different forms of psychopathology, such as depression, where psychosocial stressors are strongly implicated in the triggering of new episodes (Kendler et al., 2000).Understanding the role of stressors in depression requires consideration of the interaction between biological, cognitive ...

“…Within this context, Vanderhasselt et al (2007) investigated the influence of rTMS on a Stroop task in which participants had to switch between word reading and color naming within a low-conflict (80% incongruent trials) and a medium-conflict (50% incongruent) condition. This both studies and both found DLPFC involvement, their research findings regarding lateralization contradict each other.…”

Section: Varying the Ratio Of Congruent And Incongruent Trialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and Stroop performance: Tackling the lateralization

Vanderhasselt

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Baeken³

2009

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148

AND CHRIS BAEKENUniversity Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel), Brussels, Belgium Neuroscience research has identified the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) Theoretical BackgroundCognitive control can be conceptualized as the capacity to suppress prepotent but incorrect responses and the ability to filter out irrelevant information within a stimulus set (Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). Experimental conflict situations that require cognitive control have been found in tasks that demand overriding of prepotent responses, such as in the Stroop (1935) paradigm. The Stroop interference effect is one of the most frequently used tasks in cognitive psychology, clinical neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience. In a Stroop color-naming task, participants have to name the ink color of a printed color word, and greater conflict occurs for incongruent (e.g., the word RED in green ink) than for congruent (e.g., the word RED in red ink) trials-in other words, the Stroop interference effect.Neuroimaging techniques can be used to investigate the brain correlates of cognitive control during experiments. Such activation techniques include PET (positron emission tomography), fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), and ERPs (event-related potentials). These neuroimaging techniques face the critical problem, though, of distinguishing cause from effect, because no interference with brain activity is provoked. As a noninvasive tool for stimulation of the human cerebral cortex, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) induces alterations of neuronal activity that have an effect on cognition; this is becoming a promising technique for investigating whether a particular area is essential for task performance.