Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital UZ Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Laarbeeklaan 101, 1090 Brussels, Belgium.
Behav Brain Res. 2010 Dec 25;214(2):450-5. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.06.029. Epub 2010 Jul 1.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) studies investigating brain imaging correlates of emotion modulation in healthy volunteers can improve our understanding of the 'affective' impact of this application. In this fMRI study, we focused on lateralized amygdala functioning when processing salient emotional visual stimuli after one high-frequency (HF)-rTMS session. In a 'uniform sample' of 20 right-handed, non-depressed, healthy female subjects we examined whether one HF-rTMS session applied to the left (n=10) or right (n=10) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) would influence amygdala responses to positively and negatively valenced baby faces. Subjects were given no other instructions than to focus on the emotion the visual stimuli elicited during scanning. One HF-rTMS session did not result in a conscious mood change. Whereas one left-sided HF-rTMS session did not affect amygdala processing of the positive or negative stimuli, after a single right-sided HF-rTMS session we found a significant right amygdala activity attenuation during the processing of negatively valenced baby faces. This finding provides additional evidence supporting the role of the right anterior hemisphere in the processing of negative emotional information, and increases our understanding of HF-rTMS treatment effects in mental disorders.
重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）研究调查健康志愿者情绪调节的脑影像学相关性，可以增进我们对该应用的“情感”影响的理解。在这项 fMRI 研究中，我们专注于处理显著情绪视觉刺激后单侧杏仁核功能，在一次高频（HF）-rTMS 治疗后。在一个由 20 名右利手、非抑郁、健康女性组成的“均匀样本”中，我们研究了一次 HF-rTMS 治疗应用于左侧（n=10）或右侧（n=10）背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）是否会影响杏仁核对正性和负性婴儿面孔的反应。除了要求被试在扫描过程中专注于视觉刺激引起的情绪外，被试没有得到任何其他指令。一次 HF-rTMS 治疗不会导致有意识的情绪变化。虽然一次左侧 HF-rTMS 治疗不会影响正性或负性刺激的杏仁核处理，但单次右侧 HF-rTMS 治疗后，我们发现处理负性婴儿面孔时右侧杏仁核活动明显减弱。这一发现为右侧前半球在处理负性情绪信息中的作用提供了额外的证据，并增加了我们对高频 rTMS 治疗精神障碍效果的理解。
