Left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation impairs performance in affective go/no-go task

Functional neuroimaging studies have associated affective go/no-go function with lateral prefrontal activation, but they have not established a causal role and have not determined whether one hemisphere is predominantly engaged. In the present study, 11 normal volunteers underwent slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the occipital cortex prior to performance of a picture-based affective go/no-go task. We found an interfering effect of left prefrontal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation compared with both right prefrontal and occipital repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. This impairment concerned positive and negative task stimuli to a similar extent, and tended to be greater in shift compared with nonshift blocks. Our findings demonstrate a functionally relevant lateralization of the prefrontal contribution to affective go/no-go tasks.