TY  - JOUR
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Zwanzger, Peter
A1  - Rehbein, Maimu A
A1  - Steinberg, Christian
A1  - Knoke, Kathrin
A1  - Dobel, Christian
A1  - Klinkenberg, Isabelle
A1  - Kugel, Harald
A1  - Kersting, Anette
A1  - Arolt, Volker
A1  - Pantev, Christo
A1  - Junghofer, Markus
T1  - Magnetoencephalographic correlates of emotional processing in major depression before and after pharmacological treatment
JF  - International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
N2  - Background: 
In major depressive disorder (MDD), electrophysiological and imaging studies suggest reduced neural activity in the parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions. In the present study, neural correlates of emotional processing in MDD were analyzed for the first time in a pre-/post-treatment design by means of magnetoencephalography (MEG), allowing for detecting temporal dynamics of brain activation.

Methods: 
Twenty-five medication-free Caucasian in-patients with MDD and 25 matched controls underwent a baseline MEG session with passive viewing of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures. Fifteen patients were followed-up with a second MEG session after 4 weeks of antidepressant monopharmacotherapy with mirtazapine. The corresponding controls received no intervention between the measurements. The clinical course of depression was assessed using the Hamilton Depression scale.

Results: 
Prior to treatment, an overall neocortical hypoactivation during emotional processing, particularly at the parietal regions and areas at the right temporoparietal junction, as well as abnormal valence-specific reactions at the right parietal and bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) regions were observed in patients compared to controls. These effects occurred <150ms, suggesting dysfunctional processing of emotional stimuli at a preconscious level. Successful antidepressant treatment resulted in a normalization of the hypoactivation at the right parietal and right temporoparietal regions. Accordingly, both dlPFC regions revealed an increase of activity after therapy.

Conclusions: 
The present study provides neurophysiological evidence for dysfunctional emotional processing in a fronto-parieto-temporal network, possibly contributing to the pathogenesis of MDD. These activation patterns might have the potential to serve as biomarkers of treatment success.
KW  - dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
KW  - temporoparietal junction
KW  - parietal hypoactivation
KW  - IAPS
KW  - EEG
KW  - MEG
KW  - MDD
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-149873
VL  - 19
IS  - 2
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Manish, Asthana
A1  - Nueckel, Katharina
A1  - Mühlberger, Andreas
A1  - Neueder, Dorothea
A1  - Polak, Thomas
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Deckert, Jürgen
A1  - Herrmann, Martin J.
T1  - Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on consolidation of fear memory
JF  - Frontiers in Neuropsychiatric Imaging and Stimulation
N2  - It has been shown that applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) influences declarative memory processes. This study investigates the efficacy of tDCS on emotional memory consolidation, especially experimental fear conditioning. We applied an auditory fear-conditioning paradigm, in which two differently colored squares (blue and yellow) were presented as conditioned stimuli (CS) and an auditory stimulus as unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Sixty-nine participants were randomly assigned into three groups: anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation. The participants of the two active groups (i.e., anodal and cathodal) received tDCS over the left DLPFC for 12 min after fear conditioning. The effect of fear conditioning and consolidation (24 h later) was measured by assessing the skin conductance response (SCR) to the CS. The results provide evidence that cathodal stimulation of the left DLPFC leads to an inhibitory effect on fear memory consolidation compared to anodal and sham stimulation, as indicated by decreased SCRs to CS+ presentation during extinction training at day 2. In conclusion, current work suggests that cathodal stimulation interferes with processes of fear memory consolidation.
KW  - transcranial direct current stimulation
KW  - dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
KW  - fear conditioning
KW  - fear memory consolidation
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97294
ER  -