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    Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional vulnerability

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Chen, N.
    Basanovic, J.
    Notebaert, L.
    MacLeod, C.
    Clarke, Patrick
    Date
    2017
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Chen, N. and Basanovic, J. and Notebaert, L. and MacLeod, C. and Clarke, P. 2017. Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional vulnerability. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 93: pp. 12-19.
    Source Title
    Journal of Psychiatric Research
    DOI
    10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.05.008
    ISSN
    0022-3956
    School
    School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54897
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique which has garnered recent interest in the potential treatment for emotion-based psychopathology. While accumulating evidence suggests that tDCS may attenuate emotional vulnerability, critically, little is known about underlying mechanisms of this effect. The present study sought to clarify this by examining the possibility that tDCS may affect emotional vulnerability via its capacity to modulate attentional bias towards threatening information. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either anodal tDCS (2 mA/min) stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), or sham. Participants were then eye tracked during a dual-video stressor task designed to elicit emotional reactivity, while providing a concurrent in-vivo measure of attentional bias. Greater attentional bias towards threatening information was associated with greater emotional reactivity to the stressor task. Furthermore, the active tDCS group showed reduced attentional bias to threat, compared to the sham group. Importantly, attentional bias was found to statistically mediate the effect of tDCS on emotional reactivity, while no direct effect of tDCS on emotional reactivity was observed. The findings are consistent with the notion that the effect of tDCS on emotional vulnerability may be mediated by changes in attentional bias, holding implications for the application of tDCS in emotion-based psychopathology. The findings also highlight the utility of in-vivo eye tracking measures in the examination of the mechanisms associated with DLPFC neuromodulation in emotional vulnerability.

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