State-Dependent Effects of Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Continuous Thetaburst Stimulation on Cocaine Cue Reactivity in Chronic Cocaine Users

AbstractThe ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is a major hub of the reward system and has been shown to activate specifically in response to pleasant / rewarding stimuli. Previous studies demonstrate enhanced pleasant cue reactivity after single applications of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the vmPFC. Here we present a pilot case study in which we assess the cumulative impact of multiple consecutive vmPFC-tDCS sessions on the processing of visual emotional stimuli in an event-related MEG recording design. The results point to stable modulation of increased positivity biases (pleasant > unpleasant stimulus signal strength) after excitatory vmPFC stimulation and a reversed pattern (pleasant < unpleasant) after inhibitory stimulation across five consecutive tDCS sessions. Moreover, cumulative effects of these emotional bias modulations were observable for several source-localized spatio-temporal clusters, suggesting an increase in modulatory efficiency by repeated tDCS sessions. This pilot study provides evidence for improvements in the effectiveness and utility of a novel tDCS paradigm in the context of emotional processing.

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Nicotine enhances modulation of food-cue reactivity by leptin and ghrelin in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Addiction Biology ◽

10.1111/adb.12167 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 832-844 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Nils B. Kroemer ◽

Franziska Wuttig ◽

Martin Bidlingmaier ◽

Ulrich S. Zimmermann ◽

Michael N. Smolka

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Cue Reactivity ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

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Cerebral Blood Flow in Chronic Cocaine Users: A Study with Positron Emission Tomography

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.152.5.641 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 152 (5) ◽

pp. 641-648 ◽

Cited By ~ 244

Author(s):

Nora D. Volkow ◽

Nizar Mullani ◽

K. Lance Gould ◽

Stephen Adler ◽

Kenneth Krajewski

Keyword(s):

Positron Emission Tomography ◽

Blood Flow ◽

Cerebral Blood Flow ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Cerebral Arteries ◽

Emission Tomography ◽

Relative Distribution ◽

Positron Emission ◽

Chronic Cocaine ◽

Cocaine Users

Occurrence of cerebrovascular accidents has been associated with cocaine abuse. We investigated the relative distribution of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in groups of chronic cocaine users, and of normal controls. Relative CBF was measured using positron emission tomography and 15oxygen-labelled water. The cocaine users showed areas of deranged CBF as evidenced by patchy regions of defective isotope accumulation throughout their brain. The chronic cocaine users showed decreased relative CBF in the prefrontal cortex when compared with normal subjects. The repeated scans of some cocaine users, after 10 days of cocaine withdrawal, continued to show decreased relative CBF of the prefrontal cortex. We hypothesise that some of the widespread defects in CBF in the cocaine users could reflect the effects of vasospasm in cerebral arteries exposed chronically to the sympathomimetic actions of cocaine.

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The representation of reward magnitude in the human ventral striatum and the medial orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex – An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis with implications for a fundamental understanding of the human brain and substance abuse disorders

Pharmacopsychiatry ◽

10.1055/s-0031-1292500 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 44 (06) ◽

Author(s):

L Kaps ◽

O Gruber ◽

F Falkai ◽

EK Diekhof

Keyword(s):

Substance Abuse ◽

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Human Brain ◽

Ventral Striatum ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Likelihood Estimation ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Activation Likelihood Estimation ◽

Fundamental Understanding ◽

Substance Abuse Disorders

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of [CONFERENCE POSTER]: Ventromedial prefrontal cortex shapes responses of nucleus accumbens shell neurons to suppress unreinforced actions.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.8013958.8392057 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Trevor W Robbins

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Nucleus Accumbens ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Nucleus Accumbens Shell

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Age differences in ventromedial prefrontal cortex functional connectivity during socioemotional content processing

Social Behavior and Personality An International Journal ◽

10.2224/sbp.9380 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (7) ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Ryan T. Daley ◽

Holly J. Bowen ◽

Eric C. Fields ◽

Angela Gutchess ◽

Elizabeth A. Kensinger

Keyword(s):

Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽

Age Groups ◽

Emotional Content ◽

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽

Anterior Cingulate ◽

Supramarginal Gyrus ◽

Age Related ◽

Content Processing

Self-relevance effects are often confounded by the presence of emotional content, rendering it difficult to determine how brain networks functionally connected to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) are affected by the independent contributions of self-relevance and emotion. This difficulty is complicated by age-related changes in functional connectivity between the vmPFC and other default mode network regions, and regions typically associated with externally oriented networks. We asked groups of younger and older adults to imagine placing emotional and neutral objects in their home or a stranger's home. An age-invariant vmPFC cluster showed increased activation for self-relevant and emotional content processing. Functional connectivity analyses revealed age × self-relevance interactions in vmPFC connectivity with the anterior cingulate cortex. There were also age × emotion interactions in vmPFC functional connectivity with the anterior insula, orbitofrontal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. Interactions occurred in regions with the greatest differences between the age groups, as revealed by conjunction analyses. Implications of the findings are discussed.

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