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Updated: May 11, 2026
Simultaneous EEG Monitoring During Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Published on: June 17, 2013
Enhancement of affective processing induced by bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation in patients with
Andre Russowsky Brunoni1, Tamires Araujo Zanao, Marie-Anne Vanderhasselt
1Clinical Research Center, University Hospital, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Department of Neurosciences and Behavior, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Objective:
Our aim was to evaluate whether one single section of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a neuromodulatory technique that noninvasively modifies cortical excitability, could induce acute changes in the negative attentional bias in patients with major depression.
Subjects And Methods:
Randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, parallel design enrolling 24 age-, gender-matched, drug-free, depressed subjects. Anode and cathode were placed over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We performed a word Emotional Stroop Task collecting the response times (RTs) for positive-, negative-, and neutral-related words. The emotional Stroop effect for negative vs. neutral and vs. positive words was used as the measure of attentional bias.
Results:
At baseline, RTs were significantly slower for negative vs. positive words. We found that active but not sham tDCS significantly modified the negative attentional bias, abolishing slower RT for negative words.
Conclusion:
Active but not sham tDCS significantly modified the negative attentional bias. These findings add evidence that a single tDCS session transiently induces potent changes in affective processing, which might be one of the mechanisms of tDCS underlying mood changes.
