Anodal tDCS targeting the right orbitofrontal cortex enhances facial expression recognition

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuromodulation

Background:

• The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a crucial role in processing and recognizing facial expressions.
• Deficits in facial expression recognition are associated with OFC dysfunction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied to the right OFC enhances facial expression recognition in healthy adults.
• To compare the effects of anodal tDCS with a sham condition on facial expression recognition accuracy and speed.

Main Methods:

• Twenty healthy undergraduate participants (18 female) underwent two counterbalanced sessions of either anodal tDCS or sham tDCS targeting the right OFC.
• Participants completed a facial expression labelling task (angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, sad, neutral) and a control social judgement task.
• Performance was measured by accuracy, median reaction time, and overall efficiency.

Main Results:

• Anodal tDCS to the right OFC significantly improved overall efficiency and speed of facial expression recognition compared to the sham condition.
• No significant effects of tDCS were observed on the control social judgement task.
• The enhancement in recognition efficiency and speed spanned across all tested emotions.

Conclusions:

• This study provides the first evidence that anodal tDCS targeting the right OFC enhances facial expression recognition.
• The findings suggest that tDCS is a promising non-invasive technique for potentially treating deficits in facial expression recognition.
• Future research should explore the therapeutic potential of OFC tDCS in populations with OFC damage or dysfunction.