Depression and anxiety
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Depression and anxiety · Nov 2012
rTMS stimulation on left DLPFC affects emotional cue retrieval as a function of anxiety level and gender.
Anxiety behaviour showed a consistent attentional bias toward negative and aversive memories, induced by a right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) hyperactivation. In the present research, we explored the possible effect of rTMS (repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation) on the left DLPFC in memory retrieval of positive versus negative emotional words, to induce a balanced response between the two hemispheres. Moreover, the gender effect in emotional memory processing was verified as a function of the stimulus valence. ⋯ These results suggested that left DLPFC activation favors the memory retrieval of positive emotional information and may limit the "unbalance effect" induced by a right frontal hemispheric superiority in high levels of anxiety.