Figure 1
From: Diminished appetitive startle modulation following targeted inhibition of prefrontal cortex
The evaluation of emotional stimuli compared to neutral ones elicited robust responses in the left dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dlPFC and dmPFC).
The activations are illustrated as 4 mm spheres around the peak coordinates on the surfaces of the outer grey matter boundary (a). An inhibitory theta burst stimulation (TBS) of the left dlPFC but not of the left dmPFC reduced the frequency of emotion-startle interactions, underscoring the focality of our fMRI-guided intervention. This frequency was defined as the percentage of trials entailing a larger startle magnitude when negative stimuli were presented and a smaller magnitude when positive stimuli were shown (relative to the neutral category) (b). Disruption of the left dlPFC or dmPFC reduced the magnitude of appetitive startle modulation, while leaving a startle potentiation by negative emotion unaffected (c). Error bars indicate the standard error of the mean (SEM). Abbreviations: A, anterior; dlPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; dmPFC, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; L, left; P, posterior; R, right; **P < 0.01; *P < 0.05; #P < 0.10.
