Journal article

Increased anxiety after stimulation of the right inferior parietal lobe and the left orbitofrontal cortex

  • Grieder, Matthias Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Homan, Philipp Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, United States - Division of Psychiatry Research, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Northwell Health, New York, NY, United States - Department of Psychiatry, Zucker School of Medicine at Northwell/Hofstra, Hempstead, NY, United States
  • Federspiel, Andrea Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Kiefer, Claus Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • Hasler, Gregor Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland - Division of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Science, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
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  • 05.05.2020
Published in:
  • Frontiers in Psychiatry. - 2020, vol. 11, p. 375
English Sustained anxiety is a key symptom of anxiety disorders and may be associated with neural activation in the right inferior parietal lobe (rIPL), particularly under unpredictable threat. This finding suggests a moderating role of the rIPL in sustained anxiety, which we tested in the current study. We applied cathodal or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the rIPL as a symptom provocation method in 22 healthy participants in a randomized, double-blind, crossover study, prior to two recordings of cerebral blood flow (CBF). In between, we applied a threat-of- shock paradigm with three conditions: unpredictable (U), predictable (P), or no electric shocks (N). We hypothesized increased anxiety under U, but not under P or N. Furthermore, we expected reduced CBF in the rIPL after tDCS compared to sham. As predicted, anxiety was higher in the U than the P and N conditions, and active tDCS augmented this effect. While tDCS did not alter CBF in the rIPL, it did attenuate the observed increase in brain regions that typically increase activation as a response to anxiety. These findings suggest that the rIPL moderates sustained anxiety as a gateway to brain regions crucial in anxiety. Alternatively, anodal tDCS over the left orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) may have increased anxiety through disruption of OFC- amygdala interactions.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Master en médecine
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/308765
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