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The application of TMS in the Study of Emotion

The processing and experience of emotions in humans are complex phenomena that involve a brain circuitry of cortical and subcortical structures (Hofman, 2008) and this process is multilayered and involves temporally and functionally distinct processing steps. Neuroimaging and lesion data confirm that these processing steps, which support emotional speech and language comprehension, are anchored in a functionally differentiated brain network (Kotz and Paulmann, 2011).

Ongoing research

In the 1970s, evidence was provided that positive and negative affect was associated with patterns of left and right frontal brain activity, respectively. Transcranial magnetic stimulation studies have added causal evidence for the lateralised involvement of the left prefrontal cortex in the approach-related emotion anger and the right prefrontal cortex in the avoidance-related emotion fear (Hofman, 2008).

In addition to studies involved in the mapping of emotions, some have shown that emotional stimuli may prime the motor system and facilitate action readiness, van Loon et al. (2010) report; when administered over the primary motor cortex involved in responding, TMS pulses elicit motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) in the represented muscles. The amplitudes of these MEPs reflect the state of corticospinal excitability. This study investigated the dynamic effects of induced emotions on action readiness, as reflected by corticospinal excitability. Subjects performed a choice task while viewing task-irrelevant emotional and neutral pictures. The pattern of MEP amplitudes showed a typical increase as the TMS pulse was presented closer in time to the imminent response. This dynamic pattern was amplified by both pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli, but more so when unpleasant pictures were viewed. These patterns present novel evidence in support of the notion that emotional stimuli modulate action readiness.


References

  • Hofman, Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 2008
  • Kotz and Paulmann, Language and Linguistics Compass, 2011
  • van Loon et al., Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 2010

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